Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. Declares $0.50 per Share Supplemental Common Stock Dividend
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) announced today that its
Board of Directors has declared a supplemental common stock dividend of
$0.50 per share to be paid on June 1, 2011 to shareholders of record as
of May 15, 2011. The supplemental dividend to be paid in June represents
an addition to FCX′s regular quarterly common stock dividend of $0.25
per share.
The declaration of dividends is at the discretion of the Board and will
depend on the company's financial results, cash requirements, future
prospects, and other factors deemed relevant by the Board. Based on
approximately 947 million common shares currently outstanding, the June
2011 supplemental dividend payment will approximate $474 million.
James R. Moffett, Chairman of the Board andRichard C.
Adkerson, President and Chief Executive Officer of FCX, said, 'This
action reflects our established financial policy of maintaining a strong
balance sheet, prioritizing uses of cash to future growth and returning
excess cash to shareholders.Our recent financial performance,
strong balance sheet and the positive market environment for our
products enables us to invest aggressively in our attractive portfolio
of growth projects while providing strong cash returns to shareholders. ?
FCX is a leading international mining company with headquarters in
Phoenix, Arizona. FCX operates large, long-lived, geographically diverse
assets with significant proven and probable reserves of copper, gold and
molybdenum. FCX has a dynamic portfolio of operating, expansion and
growth projects in the copper industry and is the world′s largest
producer of molybdenum.
The company′s portfolio of assets includes the Grasberg minerals
district, the world′s largest copper and gold mine in terms of
recoverable reserves; significant mining operations in the Americas,
including the large scale Morenci and Safford minerals districts in
North America and the Cerro Verde and El Abra operations in South
America; and the Tenke Fungurume minerals district in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. Additional information about FCX is available on
FCX′s website at www.fcx.com.
Cautionary Statement.This press release contains
forward-looking statements in which we discuss factors we believe may
affect our potential future performance.Forward-looking
statements are all statements other than historical facts, such as
statements regarding timing of dividend payments.The declaration
of dividends is at the discretion of the Company's Board of Directors
and will depend on the Company's financial results, cash requirements,
future prospects, and other factors deemed relevant by the Board.In
addition,important factors that might cause actual results to
differ materially from results anticipated by forward-looking statements
include factors described in FCX's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2010, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
Financial Contacts:
Kathleen
L. Quirk, 602-366-8016
or
David P. Joint, 504-582-4203
or
Media
Contact:
Eric E. Kinneberg, 602-366-7994