Chairman's Statement

Antofagasta PLC
8 June 2000


Full text of the speech given by the Chairman, Mr Andronico Luksic, and Mr
Jean-Paul Luksic, the Chief Executive Officer of Antofagasta's mining division
in Chile, at the Annual General Meeting of Antofagasta plc in London on
Thursday, 8 June 2000.

'Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have much pleasure in welcoming you here today to the Company's Annual General
Meeting and I would like to update you on events and developments since the
Annual Report was sent out in early May.

I am going to ask Jean-Paul Luksic to tell you about the mining operations at
Los Pelambres, El Tesoro and Michilla; and at the end of the meeting we will
present a short video about Los Pelambres. I hope you will stay to watch it. (It
is about 15 minutes long.)

However, regarding the progress of our other non-mining interests and
investments, I will start with the Railway.

The Railway achieved a record tonnage of 3.1 million tonnes in 1999. Actually,
the first five months of 2000 show a 9% increase over the same period with May
2000 being an all time record of 300,000 tonnes. Other than the El Tesoro mine,
there are no other mines being built in the region at the present time, but the
railway is benefiting from the expansions at El Abra, Lomas Bayas and the giant
Escondida mine, the latter now producing more copper than our longstanding 
customer, the Codelco-owned Chuquicamata mine. We are confident that our
transportation business will have another successful year.

Next, Quinenco where we have a 33.6% interest: during May we received an
exceptionally large dividend from Quinenco of US$31.3 million, deriving largely
from its sales in 1999 of Banco Santiago to Banco Santander Central Hispano and
also the sale of VTR's cable interests to U.I.H.

Quinenco concentrated its efforts in 1999 on improving the results of its 
various businesses and this appears to be paying off. Quinenco will benefit from
the increased activity and growth in Chile which is expected to be about 6% for
2000 according to Central Bank figures. Chile is emerging well from the Asian
crisis and recession and continues to have the best investment grade and
sovereign risk rating of any country in Latin America. International Agencies
such as the World Bank and the IMF concur with this positive outlook for the 
Chilean economy. The favorable economic outlook for Chile is supported by 
strong fundamentals, including low inflation, a high level of domestic savings,
a solid financial system and a very prudent fiscal policy.

Now I will ask Jean Paul Luksic to update you on our mining operations,
regarding which we have been making promises for a long time. One of the
promises we made was that Antofagasta would build one of the largest copper
mines in the world. In fact, Los Pelambres is the sixth or seventh largest in
the world, so that promise has been kept.'

Mr Jean-Paul Luksic:

'I will start with our new mine, Los Pelambres, which is now operating at over 
the 85,000 tpd level. As planned, first production of concentrates began in 
November with the first shipment of 5,000 tonnes taking place before the end of
the year.

We were fortunate to have been able to deal successfully with the various
problems encountered during the construction stage as mentioned at last year's
Annual General Meeting.

Progress was maintained on all fronts and Los Pelambres met its construction and
production targets and was developed within its original US$1.36 billion budget.
Production in the first five months of this year was 127,000 tonnes of fine
copper in concentrates and the plant is operating at between 92,000 and 95,000
tpd, an increase of 12% over its planned capacity. We are now optimizing the
plant in order to reach a production level of 95,000 to 100,000 tpd by the last
quarter of 2000. Los Pelambres was expected to produce 275,000 tonnes of copper
in 2000 but now we expect that production this year should exceed 300,000
tonnes.

We can also mention that the molybedenum plant has been working very well since
May. Los Pelambres is now about to conclude its Completion Test Phase, and once
the tests have been approved by the Project Banks which we anticipate will be
around mid-July, the project loans amounting to US$950 million will become
non-recourse to the sponsors, Antofagasta and our Japanese partners, and
approximately US$130 million will be released from escrow to us.
          
Management figures show that after tax, Los Pelambres made a profit of US$30.8
for the first four months. Due to current higher production and low treatment
and refining charges, cash costs were down to 35.9 cents per lb, which is lower
than the feasibility study forecast. Obviously, the low cash costs leave Los
Pelambres very well placed to service its debt commitment. We believe the future
looks very promising for Los Pelambres, with its 43 cents per lb cash costs over
the 30-year mine life, placing it squarely in the lowest cost quartile of the
industry. Los Pelambres has maintained high environmental standards throughout
its operations as well as developing good relations with  the communities living
in the Choapa valley and in the port area near Los Vilos. We are now looking at
the economic advantages of increasing production from the present level. An
in-depth study is proceeding and will be completed  by the year-end. The
expansion level is being evaluated up to 125,000 tonnes
per day from the present 95,000 tpd. This would require an additional ball mill
and ancillary equipment on the flotation plant, but the existing infrastructure
could support this size of expansion.

This brings us to the subject of copper prices, which have been fairly volatile
recently. Copper prices are now around the 80 cents per lb level again, having 
been higher in mid-January when they touched 87 cents before retreating
downwards to 75 cents in mid April and promptly moving up again to 84 cents
following recent heavy drawdowns from LME stocks and increased demand in some
parts of the world. Copper prices should improve in the medium term as
fundamental market conditions are changing and the supply and demand balance is
expected to move into a small deficit later this year.

Turning to El Tesoro, which we are jointly developing with Equatorial Mining, a
subsidiary of AMP: following a difficult financing environment in 1998, project
financing was finalized in July 1999 and mine construction started in November.
El Tesoro will be a US$ 296 million low cost heap leach and SX-EW project,
similar to Michilla mine, producing 75,000 tonnes of cathodes per year with a
cash cost of 45 cents per lb over the first ten years. First cathode production
is now expected in May 2001. El Tesoro will increase the Group's existing
cathode production to 125,000 tonnes per year when in full production.

Finally, in the mining operations, we come to Michilla, which increased its 1999
production of cathodes to a new record level of 51,321 tonnes and reduced its
cash costs from 61 cents to about 55 cents. Further cost saving came from  a
decision in February this year to mothball the concentrator on the coast, which
was treating sulphide ore. This was first done in 1993 and so it is the  second
time that we have mothballed the plant, waiting for higher prices.

An extensive exploration programme centred around the Lince and Estefania 
orebodies was successful and the additional reserves have enabled the life of
the existing open pit to be extended until at least 2008, by a phased expansion
programme involving large scale earth moving operations over three years. Higher
waste to ore ratios mean that cash costs will increase to about 60 cents/lb this
year. Further ongoing exploration is continuing in other areas in Michilla to
try to identify additional reserves.

Well, to sum up on the mining - the successful start-up of Los Pelambres, means
this year's copper production will be 350,000 tonnes. By the year 2002, the
Group's total copper production will be 425,000 tonnes per year, making it one 
of the largest copper producers worldwide.'

Thursday, 8 June 2000