OREANDA-NEWS. On August 14, 2007 OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel (“Norilsk Nickel” or the “Company”) announced that 241,518,856 common shares of LionOre Mining International Ltd (“LionOre”) (Toronto Stock Exchange symbol: “LIM”; London Stock Exchange symbol: “LOR”; Botswana Stock Exchange symbol: “LIONORE”) representing in excess of 97.75% of the LionOre common shares outstanding have been acquired, or will be taken up with payment to be made shortly, by Norilsk Nickel under its all-cash offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of LionOre for aggregate cash consideration of approximately Cdn$6,8 billion, reported the press-centre of Norilsk Nickel.

The offer expired at 8:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on Monday, August 13, 2007 and has not been extended by the Company. 

Since the offer was accepted by the holders of more than 90% of the outstanding common shares as of the expiry time, Norilsk Nickel intends to proceed to acquire the remaining common shares of LionOre pursuant to the compulsory acquisition procedures available under Canadian law.  The notice of compulsory acquisition will be mailed to shareholders as soon as practicable.  Copies of the notice of compulsory acquisition and any related documents can also be obtained by directing a request to Georgeson Shareholder Communications Canada Inc., 100 University Avenue, 11th Floor, South Tower, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5J 2Y1, by telephone to 1-866-682-6148 (North American Toll Free) or 1-212-440-9800 (Overseas, call collect), or by email to: inquiries@georgeson.com.