OREANDA-NEWS. October 08, 2013. Polyus Gold International Limited (LSE – PGIL, OTC (US) – PLZLY), the largest gold producer in Russia, announces that Mr. Ilya Yuzhanov and Mr. Edward Dowling have been appointed to the Board as independent non-executive Directors. Mr. Ilya Yuzhanov has also been elected Chairman of the Board.

Additionally, the following changes have been made to the composition of the Board’s Committees:

Mr. Ilya Yuzhanov has been appointed Chairman of the Nominations Committee;

Mr. Edward Dowling has been appointed to the Health, Safety, Environment and Community Committee and the Risk Committee;

The Earl of Clanwilliam, has resigned from the Risk Committee.

Mr. Ilya Yuzhanov is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of OJSC Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond mining company by output, based in Russia, having been a member of the Supervisory Board since 2009. Additionally, since 2012 he has served on the Board of OJSC Otkritie Financial Corporation and is a member of the Audit Committee of Rusnano State Corporation. From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Yuzhanov chaired the Board of Directors of OJSC Polymetal, Russia’s largest silver producer. From 2004 to February 2013, Mr. Ilya Yuzhanov served as Chairman and member of the Supervisory Board of OJSC Nomos-Bank. He has also served on the boards of a number of other leading Russian companies including Gazprom (from 1999 to 2003), United Energy Systems of Russia (from 1999 to 2008), Russian Railways (from 2002 to 2004), OJSC Kirovsky Zavod (from 2006 to 2009), OJSC Uralkali (from 2006 to 2011), OJSC Interregional Distribution Grid Companies Holding (from June 2008 to December 2008) and OJSC Novatek (from 2006 to 2009). From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Ilya Yuzhanov served as Minister for Antimonopoly Policy and Support to Entrepreneurship of the Russian Federation.

Mr. Yuzhanov is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Association of Independent Directors of Russia and has been awarded the Association’s titles of Russia’s Best Independent Director in 2007 and 2010, and Russia’s Best Chairman of the Board in 2012.

Mr. Yuzhanov graduated with honours from the Leningrad State University in 1982 and obtained his PhD in economics in 1989.

Since 1998, Mr. Dowling has been a director of Alacer Gold where he served as President and CEO between 1998 and 2012. Since 2012, he has served as a director of Teck Resources Limited. From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Dowling served as a director of Victoria Gold Corp. Mr. Dowling started his career in mining in 1988 as an engineer with Phelps Dodge where, by 1992, he became Operations Manager and General Superintendent of Chino Mines Company, a Phelps Dodge subsidiary. From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Dowling served as Senior Vice President at Cyprus Amax Minerals with primary responsibility for process management and engineering. From 1998 to 2004, as Executive Vice President, he headed operations at Cleveland Cliffs Inc. From 2004 to 2006, he was Executive Director for Group Mining and Exploration at De Beers. From 2006 to 2008, he was President and CEO of Meridian Gold Inc.

Mr. Dowling sits on the Executive Committee of the US Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration and is a member of the US National Mining Association, the US Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America and the University Advisory Board of Colorado School of Mines. Mr. Dowling is the recipient of numerous industry awards.

Mr. Dowling graduated from the Pennsylvania State University in 1982 with degrees in mining engineering and mineral processing, he continued to graduate school where he won the Sigma Xi Annual Research Award and obtained his Master’s and PhD degrees in mineral processing from Pennsylvania State University in 1987 and 1998 respectively.