Mikhail Korolenko Appointed Acting Board Chairman of Southern Ore Mining and Processing Plant

KRIVOY ROG, Ukraine, May 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of the supervisory board of Southern Ore Mining and Processing Plant (YuGOK), located in Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, met on 30 April 2010 to discuss the measures to improve efficiency of the company. They noted the need to develop a programme for development and reconstruction of YuGOK for the next three years. Acting Board Chairman Mikhail Korolenko will be in charge for the task.

Mikhail Korolenko was appointed acting Board Chairman of YuGOK by the decision of the supervisory board of the company and took the office on 30 April 2010.

The new leader of the plant must take it out of bankruptcy state, recover the financial standing and meet all social obligations to the employees: increase salary to the industrial average and provide social guarantees and good working conditions.

The acting board chairman must submit the plant development strategy to the supervisory board for approval before 1 September 2010.

Mikhail Korolenko is a professional with a 25-year record in mining. He started his career in YuGOK as a mill operator and passed all the way to the senior manager position of the processing plant. Mr. Korolenko has authority with employees and colleagues. The owners of 99.99% of the company voted in favour of the Supervisory Board decision about his appointment", said Aleksandr Lastenko, Chairman of YuGOK's Supervisory Board.

YuGOK shareholders owning 99.9% of the shares decided to allocate additional funds for upgrades of production facilities and social programmes of the plant within the scope of YuGOK development programme. This has been reported by representatives of the companies that own YuGOK.

"Ore mining industry has been the principal investment destination for Smart-Holding for many years. We will take our utmost effort to make YuGOK a leader in the industry over the next three years", said Aleksey Pertin, Chief Executive Officer of Smart-Holding that owns around 50% of the plant.

"We regard investment in YuGOK as strategic investment because we believe that the company has a big potential for growth. In our view, the new management will help stabilize the situation at the plant and take it to the new level of development. As shareholders, we are ready to assist the new management to deliver on the goals set in the production and social programmes", said, John Mann, press officer of Millhouse (co-owner of Lanebrook that owns around 50% of YuGOK's shares).

Profile:

Southern Ore Mining and Processing Plant (Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast) is one of the major producers of iron ore raw materials - concentrate and sinter - in Ukraine.

Southern Ore Mining and Processing Plant (YuGOK) completed the year of 2009 with net loss of UAH 73.567 million.

Today the majority shareholders of YuGOK are Smart-Holding and businesses of Roman Abramovich (owners of Evraz Group)

Profile:

Mikhail Korolenko has been in the mining industry since 1986. He started his career at Southern Ore Mining and Processing Plant and worked as a manager at different mining and metals businesses, particularly as production director at Northern Ore Mining and Processing Plant and chief executive of Central Ore Mining and Processing Plant.

Mr Korolenko has a higher education degree from Krivoy Rog Ore Mining Institute. He is married and has two children.

Smart-Holding develops projects in the mining and metals industry (as a shareholder of Metinvest Group and Yakovlevskiy GOK), shipbuilding (a subholding on the basis of Kherson and Black Sea Shipbuilding Plants), agriculture (Sagro subholding and Veres Group). Smart-Holding also carries out a project to construct a deep-sea port Ochakov and manages a number of businesses in other economy sectors.

Millhouse manages assets and invests in a range of industries. Its assets include a big share in Evraz Group, real estate projects and a gold-mining company, Highland Gold.

    Press office
    Southern Ore Mining and Processing Plant (YuGOK)
    Tel.:+38-091-945-63-92
    Fax: +38(056)440-41-60
    [email protected]

SOURCE Southern Ore Mining and Processing Plant (YuGOK)