Blackwell Community Outreach
On behalf of Blackwell Zinc Company, Inc., Freeport-McMoRan Corporation ("Freeport-McMoRan") opened the local Blackwell Community Outreach office to ensure adequate communication with the community of Blackwell, providing a place where Blackwell property owners can ask questions and receive information about its soil and groundwater programs in Blackwell.

Freeport-McMoRan Corporation
When the Blackwell smelter was last operated by Blackwell Zinc Company, Inc., Blackwell Zinc Company, Inc. was owned by a subsidiary of Amax Inc. a mining and metals processing company. Amax Inc. was acquired by merger with Cyprus Minerals Company, a mining company, which formed Cyprus Amax Minerals Company in 1993. Phelps Dodge Corporation, a copper mining company acquired Cyprus Amax Minerals Company in 1999.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. acquired Phelps Dodge Corporation in 2007, and changed the name of Phelps Dodge Corporation to Freeport-McMoRan Corporation, which is now a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. Neither Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. nor Freeport-McMoRan Corporation ever operated the Blackwell smelter. Because Blackwell Zinc Company, Inc. has little or no assets, Freeport-McMoRan Corporation is using its resources to address issues related to the old smelter.

The Shaw Group
The Shaw Group is a New York Stock Exchange listed company that is not affiliated with Freeport-McMoRan but has been awarded a contract by Freeport-McMoRan to lead the cleanup efforts in Blackwell. Shaw is a leading, worldwide provider of environmental remediation services and has been widely-recognized for its accomplishments. In April 2009, Shaw was ranked as the number two environmental remediation firm in the nation. See "Top Environmental Firms 2009," Engineering News-Record (Apr. 2009).

Shaw is a diverse environmental, engineering, construction, technology, fabrication, and industrial services organization with 26,000 employees in strategic locations around the world.

Many of the Shaw people who have worked within the Blackwell community were heavily involved in the extraordinary efforts associated with the emergency response and cleanup following Hurricane Katrina. Within four days of Katrina's landfall in 2005, Shaw had mobilized more than 3,000 employees in response to requests by FEMA, the Army Corps and local governments. Among other accomplishments, Shaw dewatered more than 50 billion gallons in New Orleans within 18 days, three months earlier than the estimates made by the Army Corps. Shaw also established five major disaster recovery centers in Texas to support Katrina evacuees and processed more than 250,000 evacuee applications in 30 days. Shaw and its employees also raised $1 million for hurricane relief.