According to the official web-site of the company, OJSC Polyus Gold (RTS and MICEX: PLZL), Russia’s leading gold producer, today announced preliminary production results for H1 2006. During the first six months of 2006 the group’s gold production demonstrated a 22% year-on-year growth to 15.6 tonnes (502 k oz) of refined gold comparing to 12.8 tonnes (413 k oz) in H1 2005.

In the period under review, the following volumes of gold were produced by the group’s production units: Olimpiada mine in Krasnoyarsk region produced 12.2 tonnes (392 k oz), compared to 11.3 tonnes (363 k oz) in the first half of 2005; Kuranakh mine (OJSC Aldanzoloto GRK) in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) produced 2.2 tonnes (71 k oz), compared to 1.8 tonnes (57 k oz) in H1 last year; Zapadnoe mine in Irkutsk region (LZRK) produced 0.4 tonnes (13 k oz) of gold, compared to 0.15 tonnes (5 k oz) in H1 2005; the gold production from placer deposits (OJSC Lenzoloto) in Irkutsk region amounted to 0.8 tonnes (26 k oz), compared to 1.4 tonnes (45 k oz) in H1 2005.

During the first six months of 2006 Polyus Gold’s production units mined 6.5 mln. tonnes of ore and processed 4 mln. tonnes of ore, compared to 2.8 mln. tonnes of mined ore and 2.3 mln. tonnes of processed ore in H1 2005. The increase in the amount of ore processed is primarily due to the acquisition of Kuranakh mine in Yakutia as well as due to the planned increase in processing of low grade sulfide ores at Olimpiada mine.