Press release

Top management of Polyus Gold Mining Company paid a visit to Sakha Republic (Yakutia) on 21-23 September to meet Governor Yegor Borisov and Minister of industry Aleksey Struchkov and other officials.

The meeting focused on Polyus’ development and investment strategy for the recently acquired assets in Yakutia. President of Polyus Evgueni Ivanov was positive about the results of the meeting, saying that Yuakutia government officials expressed strong support for the company’s plans.

Commenting on the results of the visit Mr. Ivanov said: “A close overview of the new assets justified our expectations. We made a wise investment and acquired good assets which have a potential to exceed initial valuations. Polyus’ experience in developing large deposits like Olympiada and Natalka will help us to realize the enormous potential of these unique deposits.”

Polyus’ officials have also visited company’s new mines and exploration sites. Meetings with the local management focused on integrating the new assets into Polyus structure. Dedicated investment plans will be developed shortly for Kuranakh, Nezhdaninskoye and Kyuchus deposits.

Notes for editors:

Polyus gold has recently acquired 99,2% of the shares of LLC “Aldanzoloto GRK”, 50% of the shares of OJSC “Yuzhno-Verkhoyanskaya Mining Company” and 100% of the shares of OJSC “Yakutskaya Mining Company”. The acquired companies hold licenses for three gold deposits – Kuranakh ore field, Kyutchus field and Nezhdaninskoye deposit – located in the region of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

The mineral base attributable to the shares and interests acquired by ZAO “Polyus” comprises, according to the Russian classification system (B + C1 + C2 + P1), more than 28 million troy ounces (over 875 tonnes) of gold, including:

- at Kuranakh ore field – 4 116 k oz of reserves (В+С1), 3 244 k oz of resources (С2 + Р1);

- at Kyutchus field – 2 629 k oz of reserves (В+С1), 4 271 k oz of resources (С2 + Р1);

- at Nezhdaninskoye field – 3 567 k oz of reserves (В+С1), 10 308 k oz of resources (С2 + Р1).

LLC “Aldanzoloto GRK” is the largest gold producer in the region of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). In 2004 its production output reached 4,814 tones of gold (155 k oz).

Nezhdaninskoye gold filed is one of the largest gold deposits in the Russian Federation; by mineral base, according to the Russian classification system, it’s ranked second in Russia, only behind the largest Russian gold deposit Sukhoi Log (Irkutsk region).