AGM Statement

Anglo American PLC
10 May 2002

News Release
10 May 2002



                   ANGLO AMERICAN PLC ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

                              FRIDAY 10 MAY, 2002



At Anglo American plc's Annual General Meeting for shareholders in London today
Julian Ogilvie Thompson, Chairman, and Tony Trahar, Chief Executive, made the
following comments:

Tony Trahar: "2001 was a difficult year for the world economy and for a number
of commodity markets with increased volatility following the terrible events of
11th September. Nonetheless, against a backdrop of poor market conditions we
reported headline earnings of US$1.77 billion while headline earnings per share
from continuing businesses increased by 4%. Considering the earnings volatility
which has traditionally characterised our industry, our 2001 results suggest
both that our balanced portfolio of top quality assets will provide a surer
foundation for earnings going forward and that our cost control and efficiency
programmes are yielding real results. Indeed in a recessionary year we secured a
further improvement in our profit margin to 17.1%.

2001 was a landmark year in the history of the Group with the unwinding of the
long-standing cross-holding between Anglo American and De Beers. Through the
proposals approved and implemented last summer we increased our stake in De
Beers to 45%; cancelled 10% of our shares in issue; secured our full weighting
in the FTSE; and realised US$1 billion in cash with a further US$700 million to
follow. Following the unbundling of the Anglo shares held by De Beers, it is
worth noting that around 50% of our stock is now held by UK institutions and
investors.

We also saw pleasing progress in the integration of the major businesses which
we acquired during the last two years namely: Tarmac; Shell's coal assets in
Australia and Venezuela; and a variety of European paper and packaging assets,
most notably control of Frantschach, Neusiedler, Ruzomberok and Assi Sacks. Over
the last 3 years these acquisitions have helped to build a world-class coal
business and strong European forest products and industrial minerals businesses.

During 2001 we also made good progress with some internal growth projects
including: moving forward with the US$2 billion planned expansion of our
platinum operations in South Africa; achieving design capacity at Lisheen in
Ireland and an encouraging build-up in production at Loma de Niquel in
Venezuela; and making good progress with the Skorpion zinc project in Namibia.
We have one of the strongest project pipelines in the industry.

Towards the end of last year we completed a major restructuring exercise in our
London and Johannesburg corporate offices to provide central and shared services
to the Group more efficiently. Together with other cost saving initiatives in
the operations, the Group should achieve further cost savings during 2002
exceeding US$150 million.

In the first four months of 2002 we have continued our growth programme with
the, US$1.3 billion proposed acquisition of Disputada, the major Chilean copper
producer and the acquisition of Syktyvkar, the Russian forestry and office paper
company. We are also hopeful of acquiring attractive packaging assets currently
owned by La Rochette, the French packaging company.

In the coal division we, along with our consortium partners BHP Billiton and
Glencore, have now acquired 100% of the El Cerrejon Zona Norte mine in Colombia.
We are integrating this with our adjoining coal mine and believe that both have
significant scope for expansion. The new entity is one of the largest producers
of export steam coal in the world. We have also strengthened our Australian
presence by forming a joint venture arrangement with Mitsui in several
significant coal mines in Queensland, Australia. Last week we completed the
disposal of Cleveland Potash which was no longer core to our UK industrial
minerals business.

With extreme regret earlier this year we announced our intention not to invest
further funds in Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia. We found that it was impossible
to fund the development of the Konkola Deep Project commercially and were
continuing to incur substantial losses from existing operations. Since January
we have been working with the Zambian Government and others to seek to minimise
the social and economic impact of our decision.

We are continuing to review our base metals portfolio. This has resulted in some
disposals of a number of smaller assets which do not meet our investment
criteria including this week's announcement of the sale of our stake in Tati
Nickel in Botswana and the Salobo project in Brazil. We will seek further
opportunities to acquire world class assets, where these become available at
value generating prices, such as the recently announced acquisition of the
Disputada copper mines in Chile. This quality of asset rarely becomes available
and we are confident that significant synergies can be realised with our other
Chilean operations.

It has long been an objective of the Group to establish a presence in iron ore.
Equally we have not been willing to overpay to secure such a position. In March
we were able to announce progress on this front through the acquisition of
strategic stakes in Kumba Resources and Avmin. We intend to work with both
companies and other stakeholders to realise the full growth potential of South
Africa's iron ore resources and to facilitate further black economic empowerment
initiatives in South Africa.

At the time of our results announcement in March, I said that the trading
environment for most of our products is likely to remain challenging during
2002. Whilst almost every week brings conflicting signals about the state of the
world economy the economic signs, particularly in the USA, are slightly more
positive. Coal prices have weakened somewhat and prices for most commodities are
down year on year. Nonetheless prices for gold have improved significantly;
platinum has strengthened since the beginning of the year and diamond sales have
exceeded earlier forecasts. Base metal prices have gained ground since the start
of the year although stock levels remain high and underlying demand is sluggish.
However the economies of Japan and much of continental Europe remain depressed
and there is more than usual political turbulence, which could tip the scales in
an adverse direction. On balance we believe that economic trends are positive
but recovery is unlikely to be rapid.

I feel it is appropriate to comment on our Safety, Health and Environment Report
which was published earlier this week. Although there has been a notable
improvement in the lost time injury frequency rate our Board remains profoundly
dissatisfied with the number of fatalities which occur in our operations. These
are not acceptable and we are pursuing a number of initiatives to secure a major
improvement in fulfilment of our 'Zero Tolerance Target Zero' - or OTTO -
campaign.

I am pleased to report that the injury rate in the first quarter of 2002 has
shown a significant reduction and we expect to maintain this for the rest of the
year.

The last year has been a challenging one for our staff. Remaining competitive
and ensuring efficiency means that we expect them to cope with a fast pace of
change. I wish to put on record my appreciation of their commitment during some
difficult times. They deserve a large share of the credit for our performance in
2001. I believe that as an industry and as a company, we will need to do more in
the coming years to manage our talent and to attract the brightest and the best.

Finally, Mr Chairman, this may be the last occasion on which you preside over
our Annual Meeting. You have kindly agreed to continue to chair the Company
until your successor has been appointed but it would be a travesty not to place
on record the enormous debt of gratitude which this Company owes to you. You
have led Anglo American through several years of radical change and
restructuring, culminating in the successful listing in London and the
elimination of the De Beer's cross-holding. You have overseen an enormous
transformation and rerating of the Company over the last decade. Your sense of
strategy, your judgement and drive have been major factors in Anglo American's
success and the Company and its board are enormously grateful."



Julian Ogilvie Thompson: "Viscount Davignon and Peter Wilmot Sitwell retire from
the board at the end of this meeting. Both made huge contributions to one of our
predecessor companies, Minorco, in the 1990's. Both played crucial roles in the
merger of Minorco and Anglo American in 1999 and both have made significant
contributions to this company. We shall miss their wise counsel. We thank them
and wish them well in the future.

We have also been pleased to welcome two new independent directors to the Board
during this year. First, Goran Lindahl, who brings broad and highly relevant
international business experience and important insights into the sustainable
development agenda through his past involvements in the World Commission on Dams
and the UN Global Compact.

More recently we have been joined by Professor Karel Van Miert. Professor Van
Miert is President of Nyrenode University Business School and brings invaluable
insights into international regulatory and competition policy issues from his
distinguished career in national and European politics. Professor Van Miert has
agreed to join the Audit Committee. He has asked me to pass his apologies to the
meeting since he already had an inescapable commitment today before we invited
him to join our board.

We hope shortly to be in a position to announce the identity of a new
independent non-executive director. We are actively pursuing the identification
of a new Chairman.

Next week the Global Mining Initiative Conference will take place in Toronto.
This will be the culmination of a two and a half year process during which we
and other leading companies have sought to address how the mining industry
should adapt its practices so as to come closer to the objective of
sustainability. Many other stakeholders have played a part in this process and
an agenda for change is emerging. The GMI Conference will be an important
opportunity for the mining industry to look at the best means of securing a
sustainable and prosperous future. Its work will then be taken forward by the
reformed International Council on Mining and Metals. We also look forward, in
the same spirit, to playing a role in the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg in August.

Companies in the extractive and natural resources sectors are at the sharp end
of many of the debates about globalisation and corporate responsibility. As an
industry, we have not always stressed sufficiently the role which, in
partnership with good government, we play in development and in alleviating
global poverty.

As part of our response to the increasing expectations of accountability to all
our stakeholders we have also recently launched 'Good Citizenship: Our Business
Principles'. These set out the standards which we expect of our employees and
what the outside world can expect of us. These are available from the Company's
offices and are published on our website. International companies need to use
their influence and resources to the good and be seen to do so."

In closing the meeting, Julian Ogilvie Thompson commented: "All the business on
the agenda has been attended to but before closing the meeting I would like to
thank Tony Trahar for his generous reference to me at the end of his address. As
soon as the moment comes I shall be retiring after some 46 years with this
group, of which some 20 as Chairman of one or more of its great companies. I
have found the years stimulating and, mostly, great fun. I have enjoyed great
support from so many, for which I am most grateful. Naturally there will be some
sadness on my part but I shall be retiring confident in the future of the
company. You have a strong and well balanced board and an extremely able Chief
Executive who is achieving great things both internally and externally. He is
backed by a sound management team with a deep sense of loyalty to the company.
These attributes, together with the commodity and geographic diversity of our
assets and the strength of our balance sheet, should ensure success. I am
confident of that. I thank you, wish you well and I now declare the meeting
closed."





BOARD AND COMMITTEES

Also at today's AGM, Viscount Davignon and Peter Wilmot-Sitwell retired as
non-executive directors.

Mr G Lindahl and Professor Van Miert were elected directors and Messrs. Godsell
and Trahar were re-elected directors.

At yesterday's board meeting, Mr RJ Margetts was appointed chairman of the Audit
Committee, Professor KALM Van Miert was appointed a member of the Audit
Committee and Mr BE Davison was appointed a member of the Safety, Health and
Environment Committee.



For further information:

Anglo American, London

Media Relations

Kate Aindow

Tel: [phone]



Notes to Editors

Anglo American is one of the world's largest mining and natural resource groups.
With its subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates, it is a global leader in
gold, platinum, group metals and diamonds, with significant interests in coal,
base and ferrous metals, industrial minerals and forest products. The group is
geographically diverse, with operations in Africa, Europe, South and North
American and Australia.



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