AGM Statement

Hochschild Mining PLC 09 May 2008 9 May 2008 AGM Statement At the Company's Annual General Meeting held in London today, Eduardo Hochschild, Executive Chairman of Hochschild Mining plc, commented: Our first full year as a publicly listed company was a transformational one. We successfully expanded from three mines in one country to six mines in three countries, Peru, Mexico and Argentina. We delivered a strong set of financial results - adjusted EBITDA increased by 37% to $148 million and net profit more than doubled to $85 million resulting in pro forma earnings per share of 28 cents. Our strong financial performance and our confidence in the business going forward underpinned a full year dividend of 9.2 cents per share. We are pleased with operational performance in the first four months of 2008 and are confident that we will achieve our full year production target of 26 million attributable silver equivalent ounces (16.9 million attributable silver ounces and 153 thousand attributable gold ounces). The current year is one of consolidation, with the Group focused on optimising existing mines while ensuring maximum efficiency, stringent cost control and the highest standards of health, safety and environmental performance. The capacity expansions we are undertaking at Arcata, Selene and San Jose are progressing well and are on track for completion in the second half of 2008. In addition, we anticipate completing the feasibility study at San Felipe, our key development project in northern Mexico, by the end of this year with production scheduled to commence in 2010. Since the year end, we have announced a 19.99% strategic investment in Lake Shore Gold Corp., providing an attractive entry into a high-grade, long-life asset in a mining friendly jurisdiction, Canada. This year we have also announced the appointments of Miguel Aramburu as Chief Executive Officer and Ignacio Bustamante as Chief Operating Officer. These appointments are indicative of Hochschild Mining's evolution as a public company committed to good corporate governance and of our focus on the creation of shareholder value. With the achievements of 2007, our San Felipe project moving towards feasibility and our strong project pipeline, we are on track to create the operational platform that will enable us to deliver our 2011 production target of 50 million attributable silver equivalent ounces. We remain positive on the fundamentals for silver and gold given the prospects for investment demand based on continued US dollar weakness, concerns about growing inflation and a further inflow of money into the commodities sector. We are poised to benefit from the favourable price environment as a fully unhedged company and look forward to 2008 as a year of consolidation of the growth platform we have created. Enquiries: Hochschild Mining plc Wray Barber +44 (0)20 7152 6014 Head of Investor Relations Ignacio Rosado +511 437 6007 Chief Financial Officer Jose-Augusto Palma +511 317 2026 Senior Adviser, Executive Committee Finsbury Robin Walker +44 (0)20 7251 3801 Public Relations __________________________________________________________ About Hochschild Mining plc: Hochschild Mining plc is a leading precious metals company listed on the London Stock Exchange (HOCM.L for Reuters / HOC LN for Bloomberg) with a primary focus on the exploration, mining, processing and sale of silver and gold. Hochschild currently operates five underground epithermal vein mines, four located in southern Peru and one in southern Argentina and one open pit mine in northern Mexico. Hochschild also has one early development project in Mexico and sixteen long-term prospects throughout Latin America. Hochschild has over forty years experience in the mining of precious metal epithermal vein deposits. For further information please visit www.hochschildmining.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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