OREANDA-NEWS. June 8, 2007. OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel ("Norilsk Nickel" or the "Company") today announced that it has received notice that Norilsk Nickel's proposed acquisition of control of LionOre Mining International Ltd. ("LionOre") (Toronto Stock Exchange and Australian Securities Exchange symbol: "LIM"; London Stock Exchange symbol: "LOR"; Botswana Stock Exchange symbol: "LIONORE") has been approved by the Swiss Competition Commission under the applicable Swiss merger control laws. The Competition Commission, as the body responsible for the control of mergers in Switzerland, concluded that it had no objection under Swiss competition law to Norilsk Nickel's all-cash offer to the shareholders of LionOre and, therefore, Norilsk Nickel's offer is not subject to further competition review in Switzerland.

On May 23, 2007, Norilsk Nickel announced its increased all-cash offer to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of LionOre for aggregate cash consideration of approximately Cdn$6.8 billion. The offer is open for acceptances until 8:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on Monday, June 18, 2007, unless extended or withdrawn.

Full particulars of the offer are set out in the offer and offering circular filed by Norilsk Nickel. These documents are available on the Canadian Securities Administrator's web site at www.sedar.com under LionOre's company profile, and on the Company's web site at www.nornik.ru/en.