OREANDA-NEWS. April 14, 2009. Further to the announcement by JSC "Polymetal" (LSE, MICEX, RTS: PMTL) ("Polymetal" or the "Company") on March 23, 2009 that it was in discussions in relation to the purchase of OOO "Rudnik Kvartsevyi" ("RK"), Polymetal announces that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with a group of Russian companies (the "Sellers"), under which it has agreed to purchase 100% of RK for the total consideration of 10 million of Polymetal's shares on a debt-free basis (the "Transaction"). RK owns, inter alia, the mining license to the Sopka Kvartsevaya gold-silver deposit ("Sopka") and a 100% stake in OOO "Vneshstroygroup", owning the mining license to the Dalniy gold-silver deposit ("Dalniy"), reported the press-centre of Polymetal.

Both Sopka and Dalniy are located in the Severo-Evensky district of Magadan region, approximately 180 kilometers from Polymetal's Kubaka mill and 80 kilometers from the port of Evensk. Both deposits can be accessed by winter road from Magadan and by seasonal navigation through Evensk.

The Sopka deposit was discovered in 1969 and has been extensively explored by trenching, drilling, and 9 km of underground workings in 1971-2007.

The Dalniy deposit was discovered in 1964 and has been extensively explored by Soviet geologists.

Ore at both Sopka and Dalniy is free-milling. Extensive testwork by Polymetal and outside consultants confirmed conventional cyanidation recoveries of approximately 95% for gold and 90% for silver. Heap leach potential for lower-grade ore is currently being investigated by Polymetal.

In addition to the license areas, RK owns a substantial mining fleet as well as infrastructure at the Sopka mine site. Mining at Sopka is expected to commence in Q3 of 2009.

Polymetal's strategic rationale for the proposed Transaction is as follows.

Acquiring a substantial source of high-grade feed for the existing Kubaka processing plant with the goal of establishing significant production at low capital and operating costs.

Furthering the business idea of turning the Kubaka mill into the regional processing hub with multiple feed sources and substantial technological flexibility. Polymetal expects that the addition of a new source of feed will improve the overall economics of the mill's operation.

Consolidating a portfolio of land holdings and unique transportation infrastructure in the east of the Magadan region with numerous highly prospective epithermal gold-silver ore occurrences (Polymetal owns Oroch and Prognozny licenses in the vicinity).

The Company envisions the following milestones for the Sopka assets:

Producing JORC-compliant reserve report and detailed development plan for four assets which are intended to feed the Kubaka plant (Birkachan, Oroch, Sopka, Dalniy) - Q1 2010.

Restarting the Kubaka plant - Q3 2010.

Producing in excess of 100 Koz of gold equivalent from ore extracted from Sopka -  starting from 2011.

"Purchase of Sopka and Dalniy represents an outstanding opportunity to capitalize on our vision of Kubaka development and capture huge synergies by avoiding the capital costs of stand-alone plant construction," said Vitaly Nesis, CEO of Polymetal. "This transaction fully meets the Company's acquisition criteria as it is expected to generate robust cash flows less than 18 months after the announcement and strengthen our strategic position in one of the key regions of our operations".

The Transaction has been approved by Polymetal's Board and is subject to inter alia FAS approval and shareholder approval for the issue of the consideration shares. The Transaction is expected to close in Q3 2009.