UPDATE: Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. Announces Intention to Declare $1.00 per Share Supplemental Dividend on Closing of Plains Exploration & Production Company Acquisition and Reiterates Capital Allocation Plan for Oil & Gas Business

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

announced today that its Board of Directors intends to declare a supplemental dividend of $1.00 per share of common stock immediately following the closing of the pending acquisition of Plains Exploration & Production Company

. This supplemental dividend would be in addition to FCX's regular quarterly common stock dividend of $0.3125 per share. The payment of the dividend is intended to benefit both FCX's current shareholders and the FCX shares to be issued in connection with the pending acquisition of Plains Exploration & Production Company. The declaration of the supplemental dividend is conditional on the closing of the transaction. In addition, a special committee of FCX's Board of Directors formed to consider the transaction and the FCX Board of Directors have agreed to allow Plains Exploration & Production Company to pay a $3.00 per share cash dividend to PXP stockholders upon completion of the transaction. FCX also announced that, assuming completion of the pending acquisitions of Plains Exploration & Production Company and McMoRan Exploration Co.

, it plans to complete $1.5 billion in asset sales from the combined company and/or to reduce its capital spending plans. In addition, FCX reiterated its commitment to limit oil and gas capital expenditures to the cash flows generated by the oil and gas business. James R. Moffett, Chairman of the Board and Richard C. Adkerson, President and Chief Executive Officer said, “We are pleased to announce this planned action which is consistent with our Board's long standing tradition of providing cash returns to shareholders. This dividend in no way changes our commitment to reduce debt on completion of the pending acquisitions. The planned asset sales, combined with our significant cash flows and disciplined approach to investing in capital projects, will enable us to meet our target of reducing debt to $12 billion over a three year period. We are committed to continuing our track record of maintaining a strong balance sheet, operational excellence, return driven capital investments and focus on creating shareholder value.” Based on approximately 1,038 million common shares expected to be outstanding, the supplemental dividend payment will approximate $1.0 billion. If declared and paid, this supplemental dividend would be the eleventh supplemental dividend paid by FCX since 2004. 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, one of the world's largest copper and gold mines 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.