Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant Reports 6% Production Increase for the 9 months of 2008

Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant announces its production results for the nine months of 2008.

January through September 2008, Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant produced 130.1 thousand tn of SHG zinc and zinc based alloys, an increase of 6% as compared to the same period of 2007 (122.7 thousand tn). 54.8% of salable metal was supplied to the domestic market.

CZP’s subsidiary, Nova Zinc LLC, operator of Akzhal zinc and lead ore mine in Kazakhstan, processed 1,010.5 thousand tn of ore in January - September of 2008, 4.6% more than for the same period of 2007 (965.5 thousand tn).

Average zinc content in the ore for the period was 2.49% with average lead content of 0.5%, compared to 2.62% and 0.49% respectively a year ago.

Production of zinc in zinc concentrate for the first nine months of 2008 decreased 2% to 22,889 tn over the prior year result of the same period of 22,365 tn. Lead in lead concentrate production increased by 3.8% to 4,015 tn (vs. 3,867 in the first half of 2007).

CZP’s subsidiary, The Brock Metal Company Limited (the leading UK supplier of zinc and aluminum die-casting alloys) sold 21,058 tn of products January through September 2008, 9.6%  less than for the same period of 2007 (23,302 tn).

“Credit-crisis related factors have been impacting all major industries – consumers of zinc and zinc-based products. Tight credit resulted in slowdown in zinc consumption in Russia and abroad. These factors combined with the steep decline in the price of zinc on the London Metal Exchange over the past year, force us to adjust our output accordingly and to reduce 2009 zinc output to 150,000 tn of zinc”, said Sergei Moiseyev, Chairman of Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant.