Antofagasta Regulatory News (ANTO)

27 Feb 2006 07:00

Antofagasta PLC27 February 2006 ANTOFAGASTA PLC Antofagasta reaches 12.19% interest in Tethyan London, 27 February 2006: Antofagasta PLC ("Antofagasta") is pleased to announcethat it has today filed a notice with the Australian Stock Exchange confirmingthe on-market purchase of a further 4,300,000 shares at a price of A$1.20 pershare in Tethyan Copper Company Limited ("Tethyan") on Friday, 24 February2006. Antofagasta's on-market share purchases now total 16,142,910 Tethyanshares, which represents an interest of 12.19% in Tethyan's issued sharecapital. On 14 February 2006, Antofagasta announced that it had reached agreement withTethyan on the terms for a recommended cash offer of A$1.20 per share for theentire issued share capital of Tethyan. Rothschild is advising Antofagasta in relation to this transaction. Enquiries - London Enquiries - SantiagoAntofagasta PLC Antofagasta Minerals S.A.Tel: +44 20 7808 0988 Alejandro Riverawww.antofagasta.co.uk Tel: +562 377 5145 Desmond O'Conor Email: arivera@aminerals.clEmail: doconor@antofagasta.co.uk Enquiries - Australia Bankside Consultants N M Rothschild (Australia) Ltd (financial advisers)Tel: +44 20 7367 8873 / +44 7885 356 639 Tel: +61 2 9323 2000 Keith Irons Marshall BaillieuEmail: keith@bankside.com Chris Forman Jackson Wells Morris (public relations advisers) Tel: +61 2 9904 4333 Benjamin Haslem About Antofagasta PLC Antofagasta PLC is a Chilean-based mining group listed on the London StockExchange and is a constituent of the FTSE-100 index. Its principal mining assets include the Los Pelambres, El Tesoro and Michilla mines and the Esperanza copper project. Inaddition to copper mining, Antofagasta's interests include rail and roadtransport operations and water distribution. About Tethyan Copper Company Limited Tethyan is a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Its principalassets are a 75% interest in the exploration licence encompassing the highlyprospective Chagai Hills region of North West Pakistan known as Reko Diq, whichincludes the Tanjeel Mineral Resource and the Western Porphyries, and a 100%interest in certain other licences in the region. This mining district hostssignificant copper-gold porphyry deposits as part of an extended copper-goldbelt. Tethyan has reported total indicated and inferred mineral resourceestimates at these properties of 2.4 billion tonnes with a copper grade of 0.51%and a gold grade of 0.27 grams per tonne. The resource estimates includeprobable reserves at the Tanjeel Mineral Resource of 128.8 million tonnes with acopper grade of 0.7%. Reserve and resource estimates have been reported byTethyan to JORC standards. Tethyan had gross assets of A$28.8 million as at 30June 2005 and reported a net loss of A$1.7 million for the year ended 30 June2005. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange