Source: the official web-site of the company.

OJSC Polyus Gold (RTS, MICEX and LSE: PLZL), Russia’s leading gold producer, today announced the establishment of OJSC Polyus Exploration, its wholly owned new subsidiary. Polyus Exploration will be holding licenses for greenfield exploration projects which are currently in Polyus Gold’s pipeline. The decision to create Polyus Exploration was taken by the Board of Directors of Polyus Gold by absentee ballots in March 2006.

Alexei Osenmuk, former Chief Financial Officer of Polyus Gold, will be appointed as General Director of Polyus Exploration.

Dmitry Glotov, former Deputy General Director for international financial reporting of OJSC “MMC Norilsk Nickel”, is appointed as Polyus Gold’s new Chief Financial Officer and Vice President.

Andrey Konyukhov, who recently worked for Barrick Gold in Central Asia, will be appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Polyus Exploration. Creation of OJSC Polyus Explorations is part of the programme to streamline the Company’s exploration business, stipulated in its strategic development plan till 2015. According to Evgueni Ivanov, CEO of Polyus Gold, “the programme is focused on bringing good organization to our greenfield exploration projects and aimed at making the process more transparent for investors. The Company’s exploration business has proved to be highly efficient, and the programme will help to raise its investment appeal and to achieve even better results in the future”.