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Kathleen L. Quirk, 602-366-8016

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David P. Joint, 504-582-4203

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Media Contact:

William L. Collier, 504-582-1750

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) announced today that a small scale failure encompassing approximately 75,000 tonnes of material occurred at the Grasberg open pit operated by its 90.6% owned subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI). There were no injuries or property damage.

PT-FI's mining and milling activities are continuing normally but access to the high grade section of "7 South" will be restricted until remediation activities are completed and safe access to this mining area can be assured. PT-FI expects to complete remediation of the area and resume mining in the high grade "7 South" section in October 2008. In the interim, PT-FI is mining ore from the DOZ underground mine and lower grade sections of the Grasberg open pit. As a result of the delayed access to the high grade material, a portion of the metal expected to be mined in the second half of 2008 will be deferred to future periods. Initial estimates indicate approximately 150 million pounds of copper (PT-FI's share, net of joint venture interest, 90 million pounds) and 200,000 ounces of gold (PT-FI's share 200,000 ounces) previously expected to be mined in 2008 will be deferred to future periods. This incident is not expected to affect PT-FI's long-term mine plans significantly.

As a result of this event and changes in PT-FI's short-range mine plans, FCX is revising its near-term sales outlook. The revised estimates, which also incorporate slightly better than expected third quarter 2008 performance from FCX's South American operations, are summarized below. The changes reflect a deferral of a small portion of FCX's copper sales and the economic impact is not significant.

FCX's estimated copper sales for 2008 of 4.03 billion pounds are 1.6% (65 million pounds) below previous estimates and estimated gold sales of 1.2 million ounces are 200,000 ounces lower than previous estimates. Molybdenum sales are unaffected. These estimates may be revised as additional information becomes available regarding the timing of access to the high grade material at Grasberg.

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.