Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant: + 15.5% in Q1

Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant (LSE: CHZN, RTS: CHZN is pleased to announce its production results for the first quarter of 2007. In January - March 2007 Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant (CZP) produced 40,145 tons of SHG zinc and zinc based alloys, 15.5% more than for the same period of 2006 (34,763 tons). Domestic market remains to be CZP’s core market, 51% of the plant output was supplied to Russian customers. CZP’s subsidiary, Nova-Zinc (the operator of the Akzhal zinc ore mine in Kazakhstan) mined 339,301 tons of ore in the first quarter of 2007, 10.3% more than for the same period of 2006 (307,606 tons). The average content of zinc in the ore was 2.43% with the average lead content of 0.66%, compared to 2.87% and 0.72% respectively in the first quarter of 2006. Production of zinc concentrate totaled 14,181 tons, 3.5% less than in the first three months of 2006 (14,702 tons). Lead concentrate production increased by 1.9% to 2,791 tons, compared to 2,738 tons in January-March 2006.  Since the beginning of the year, all zinc concentrate produced by the Akzhal mine have been supplied to the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant.
Commenting on the production results, Sergei Moiseyev, Chairman of the Board, said: "Our core operations continued to perform well and we expect to produce 165,000 tons of SHG zinc in 2007”.