Santiago, 31 July 2014 - The Codelco board agreed to appoint Nelson Pizarro Contador as the new Codelco Chief Executive Officer. This unanimous decision was reported this evening after filing a material fact with the Superintendence of Securities and Insurance (SVS).
Pizarro will take office on 1st September 2014, replacing Octavio Araneda, who has been the interim CEO since 13 June 2014, after Thomas Keller was asked to resign.
Codelco Board Chairman Óscar Landerretche thanked Octavio Araneda for his work over the last few weeks, and explained that Nelson Pizarro's appointment aims to create new leadership in Codelco for its future outlook and largest investment plan in company history. Nelson Pizarro has the experience required to lead the company and to rise to major challenges, for this reason the board of directors voted unanimously to appoint Pizarro.

Landerretche also emphasised the professional excellence of all candidates who applied to become Codelco's CEO and thanked the great interest shown to lead Chile's largest company. "It was not an easy decision to make, because we had excellent applicants and because we understand as its Board that the company is facing major challenges in safety, production, cost cuts and investments."

In this sense, he stated "the new CEO will have the support of the board of directors to lead the company through these major challenges, but more importantly, I'm sure that he will have the loyal support of all employees, professionals and executives of the company."

Mining Background

Nelson Pizarro is a mining engineer from Universidad de Chile, with more than 50 years of experience in the mining industry in a broad range of areas, including project administration, management, design and planning.

Pizarro recently won the "Fernando Riveri Award for Value Creation in Mining." He began his career at Lota Schwager. He then worked at Cemento Melón for 5 years. In 1975 he joined La Disputada mine, where he was Operations Manager.

In 1990 he joined Andina Division, where he was General Manager for four years. Subsequently, in 1995 he became General Manager of Chuquicamata Division.

In 1998 he took charge of Los Pelambres project in AMSA. Previous roles include General Manager of Minera Los Pelambres and later Mining VP of Holding Antofagasta Minerals. Between 2003 and 2006 he was Corporate Vice-President of Codelco's Norte Division.

Before he was appointed Codelco CEO, since 2005 he was the CEO of Compañía Minera Lumina Copper Chile, a subsidiary of Pan Pacific Copper; General Manager of Minera Caserones, and Director of Antofagasta Minerals.

Communications Department