OJSC Polyus Gold, Russia’s leading gold producer, announced the acquisition of geological exploration and mining license for Apsakan prospecting area in Amur region. The license was acquired by CJSC Polyus, a subsidiary of OJSC Polyus Gold, through an auction that took place on November 17th, 2006. The price paid through the auction for the license amounted to 6.3 million rubles (approx. US$237 000).

Apsakan prospecting area (242 square km) is a South-East section of Apsakan ore field and is attached to Bamskoye (including Nevachanskaya field) license area, acquired by Polyus through an auction in February 2005.

Prospecting works had been carried out at Apsakan area in 1977 – 1999. During that period over 20 mineralized zones had been discovered. The mineralization is a combination of quartz veinlet- stockwork zones and veins, and metasomatically modified rocks with gold-silver mineralization. According to experts’ assessments, Apsakan area’s predicted resources (Russian classification) amount to: P1 – 7.3 tonnes, P2 – 3 tonnes, P3 – 158 tonnes.

The exploration works to be carried out at Apsakan area by Polyus in 2007 – 2010 are expected to result in discovery of substantial gold reserves. The investments into the project will amount to approx. 200 million rubles (about US$7,5 million).

Commenting on the acquisition, Evgueni Ivanov, CEO of Polyus Gold said: “Extensive geological exploration works as well as acquisition of new exploration licenses in Russia are on the list of our top priorities. We see a great potential in Amur region in terms of its contribution into the growth of the company’s mineral resources base, and our expertise and experience in the geological exploration in the region, as well as the synergy potential will guarantee our success.