Freeport completes drilling exploration at Block A Ertsberg East

New Orleans-based miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) said Monday it had recently completed a drilling exploration program at three locations, Deep Ore Zone (DOZ), Ertsberg Stockwork Zone (ESZ) and Mill Level Zone (MLZ), of its Block A Ertsberg East in Indonesia's Papua province.

FCX said the drilling activities, 56 drill holes on twelve 100-meter spaced drill fans, were successful in delineating an additional 111 million metric tons of ore in the MLZ deposit, bringing the total estimated mineable resource to 149 million metric tons with average grades of 0.86 percent copper and 0.78 grams per metric ton of gold, equivalent to approximately 2.3 billion pounds and 2.9 million ounces of aggregate payable copper and gold, respectively.

?Engineering studies required for reserve determination of the MLZ deposit are expected to be completed by the end of 2003,? said FCX, adding that it would use the block cave mining method currently used at DOZ, which is producing at an average of over 40,000 metric tons per day.

?This additional MLZ mineralization allows FCX to add approximately ten years of Ertsberg East blockcaving operations using existing mill infrastructure, with possibilities of concurrent operations with DOZ,? the company said.

In addition, FCX is pursuing additional mineralization below MLZ (MLZ Deep). Deep holes drilled as part of the 2003 MLZ Deep program intersected high-grade copper and gold mineralization as indicated in the table below.

The company added that it planned to conduct a 37,000-meter delineation drilling program during 2004 to test this deep mineralization.

FCX, through its subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia, runs the world?s biggest copper and gold mining in the easternmost province of Papua. Last year, FCX?s copper production reached 1.52 billion pounds, while gold production was 2.29 million ounces. (robert)