PSE Circular for Brokers No. 417-00

February 21, 2000 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 417-00 BENGUETCORP GRANTED EXTENSION OF KINGKING EXPLORATION PERIOD Makati, Metro Manila, 18 February 2000 - Benguet Corporation (BenguetCorp) has been granted by the DENR-Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau (MGB) an additional two years to explore its Kingking Project. MGB Director Horacio C. Ramos signed the Order last February 10, 2000 approving the extension from February 8, 2000 to February 7, 2002. The extension gives BenguetCorp additional opportunities to expand the resource base of the contract area through additional exploration, drillings and metallurgical testing. Pre-development studies made by BenguetCorp and Echo Bay Mines, Ltd., a Canadian corporation, established a resource of 1.040 billion tonnes with % total Copper of 0.306 and gold at 0.488 grams per tonne. Minable reserve is 371 million tonnes at 0.387% total copper and 0.453 gram gold per tonne. At present BenguetCorp's exploration team is working along the periphery of the delineated orebody looking for gold which may be amenable for a Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) / Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) operation. The Kingking Project is covered by a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) approved by the government on May 27, 1992 in favor of BenguetCorp as operator and Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR) as claimowner. It is a copper-gold deposit located in Southeastern Mindanao, about 8 miles from the Municipality of Pantukan, Compostela Valley Province. Kingking is of world-class size and has the highest level of information among copper porphyry deposits in the Philippines. llcd