AGRC TO BE SOLD FOR $86 MILLION

Lragir, Armenia
Aug 27 2007

The deal on the sale of Ararat Gold Recovery Company will be made by
the end of September. The buyer is the Russian Industrial Investors
Company, ARKA reported referring to the official site of the company.

The Indian Vedanta Resources Company which owns AGRC informed that
the Georgian Madneuli Quartzite Company owned by the Russian company
will buy the company’s 82.4 percent of shares. The shares will be
sold for 86 million dollars.

Ararat Gold Recovery Company was set up on March 24, 1998 and operates
the mines at Sodk and Meghradzor. The Armenian government did not
trust this company. On August 2 the deputy prosecutor general of
Armenia Gagik Jhangiryan filed a petition to the economic court
to repeal the agreement signed by the company and the Armenian
government. The Armenian government thinks the Indian company provides
false information on the investments and other obligations.

However, the economic court did not hear the petition on August 20
because neither the petitioner nor the answered showed up at the
court of law. Perhaps the problem was solved through the sale.