OREANDA-NEWS. August 20, 2007. Norilsk Nickel announced that 241,518,856 common shares of 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.

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.