Press-releases

In recent days there have been certain reports published on internet news sources and in print media. Whilst on first sight these stories appear sensational, on closer reading they contain absurd and grossly misleading information about UC RUSAL including that the Company is allegedly closing aluminium smelters in Russia, transferring control of the Company to state corporations and about riots at the Company’s plants in Guinea. These articles are a fabrication. </P>
<P>We would like to draw the attention of members of the media that the reports already published as well as those that could appear in the future are part of a large scale, paid PR campaign initiated by competitors of UC RUSAL in bad-faith, attempting to influence public sentiment against the Company and prevent us from implementing our development strategy.<p>Unfortunately, we cannot rule out that, in the near future, your e-mail boxes will again be targeted with new messages alleging protests by students from developing countries in front of the UC RUSAL office or with letters of sorrow from non-existent villagers concerned about environmental issues, complaints by pseudo-scientists and information about unplanned environmental inspections at existing UC RUSAL plants and those under construction. We ask for your tolerance and patience to the people, who have to work off their fees in such a way.    <BR>      <BR>We believe strongly, and particularly in today's economic climate, that there are many more important areas that our competitors should be investing their funds and efforts into instead of paying for such an absurd and distracting PR campaign as this.</p>

Moscow, 17 November 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce that it has put in operation storage facilities, the first support units of the Taishet Aluminium Smelter, which is currently under construction.  The company has invested over USD 15 million in construction of the facilities to store core equipment.

Moscow, 13 November 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sergey Belsky as its Director of Sales.

Moscow, 12 November 2008 – At its regular meeting yesterday, the Board of Directors of UC RUSAL, which owns a 25% plus two shares stake in Norilsk Nickel, discussed preparations for the Extraordinary General Meeting of Norilsk Nickel’s shareholders, which has been scheduled for 26 December 2008 to elect a new Board of Norilsk Nickel.

Moscow, 5 November 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce that it has received a USD 4.5 billion credit facility from Vnesheconombank (VEB) to refinance the loan received in April 2008 from a syndicate of foreign banks to finance the acquisition of a 25% plus two shares stake in MMC Norilsk Nickel.

Moscow, 5 November 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the early repayment of the USD 4.5 billion loan provided by a syndicate of foreign banks in April 2008. The loan was used to finance the acquisition of a 25% plus two shares stake in MMC Norilsk Nickel.

Moscow, 5 November 2008 – UC RUSAL, which owns a 25% plus two shares stake in Norilsk Nickel,  is issuing this statement to voice its concerns about the announced buy back of shares by MMC Norilsk Nickel worth of RUB 26 billion despite the Krasnoyarsk region's arbitration court ordering that such action be blocked.

Moscow, 30 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the launch of a second dry gas scrubber as part of the fifth potline of reduction cells currently being constructed at the Irkutsk Aluminium Smelter. The first gas scrubber system was installed in December 2007, before the launch of the fifth potline. The combined cost of the two gas scrubbers is over USD 25 million. The gas scrubbers, which are capable of processing gas from the new electrolysis workshops, provide a 99.5% level of efficiency.

Moscow, 28 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the launch of the anode-baking furnace at the Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter following its modernisation.  The goal of the USD 25 million project was to provide the Sayanogorsk and Khakas aluminium smelters with the necessary volume of high quality anodes, which are required for aluminium production.