Antamina welcomes working in mutual cooperation to overcome incident in Santa Rosa

• We reject any notion that the unfortunate death of a local community member is associated with this incident.

Antamina informs public opinion that due to the accidental rupture of the lower section of a pipeline elbow in the VS1 valve station last Wednesday, July 25th, a copper concentrate leak was detected. Most of this product was received by the contingency well and a smaller amount spread onto an area adjacent to the station.  As a result of the agreements reached with the community, our cleanup team is performing the necessary technical work, thus resolving the root issue of any type of social and environmental conflict.

We remind the pubic that in acting with utmost responsibility, our company’s first and foremost concern is the health of the population of the Santa Rosa Community, located in the District of Cajatay, Province of Bolognesi, Ancash Region. For this reason we launched our emergency plan and we spared no expense in providing immediate medical attention to 105 people who were treated at the Santa Rosa Medical Station.  According to medical reports and three days after the occurrence of events, the status of all those treated at this medical facility is stable. 

Our concern with providing a rapid response for care needs prompted us to transport 19 fellow citizens to date to the San Pablo Clinic in Huaraz and we are pleased to report that according to doctors their condition is improving.

There have been comments on some social networks that one person died in relation to this incident. This speculation is false. We wish to inform that Mrs. Petronila Rosales, age 82, died of natural causes related to an illness she had been suffering and that her death had no relation whatsoever to any type of mining activity.

We are aware that the involuntary and accidental spill of mine material has interrupted the normal day to day activities of community life and we thank the population for understanding the urgency of the need to act immediate to begin the cleanup of these areas.  No one is free from an involuntary event that can set off a general alarm to alert the community of its existence.  These events should motivate us to improve our channels of communication and to understand that we require more effective mechanisms of mutual cooperation and assistance.

For our part, we will double our efforts to take all necessary measures to prevent incidents such as the one that occurred a few days ago from repeating.

Huaraz, July 28th, 2012

Office of Corporate Communications

Compania Minera Antamina S.A.