OREANDA-NEWS. October 16, 2009. JSC “Polymetal” (LSE, MICEX, RTS: PMTL) (“Polymetal” or the “Company”) announced that Fitch Ratings (“Fitch”) has assigned the Company long-term and short-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (“IDRs”) of “B”. Fitch has also assigned Polymetal a national long-term rating of “BBB(rus)”. The outlook on all the long-term ratings is Negative, reported the press-centre of Polymetal.

In its press-release Fitch notes Polymetal’s extensive gold and silver reserve base which is expected to support long mine lives, a significant number of development projects which will enable the Company to sustain and increase production over the next five years, and the fact that Polymetal is well positioned on the cost curve compared with its global industry peers.

Rating constraints include limited diversification across products and dependence on gold and silver prices which are out of the Company’s control, as well as limited geographical reach and the Company’s relatively small size in respect of production, revenues, and EBITDA compared to the leading gold mining companies rated by the agency.

Fitch considers Polymetal’s short term liquidity as adequate. The Negative outlook reflects Fitch concerns about the Company’s liquidity in the longer term, namely in 2011.

“We are pleased to have started working with Fitch”, said Vitaly Nesis, CEO of Polymetal. “This is an important step in Polymetal’s accessing debt capital markets that will enable us, inter alia, to make our progress on improving the Company’s capital structure transparent for its participants”.