IRC : Russian Governmental Support to IRC - Home-grown Mining Specialists for K&S

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In order to meet the needs of the economy of the Russian Far East, at the request from IRC, the federal government has launched new educational programmes in the universities focusing on mining. In the Jewish Autonomous Region (EAO) of the Russian Far East where K&S is located, the Amur State University of EAO has received a licence from the Russian Federal government to educate mid-level personnel in the "Mineral Processing" specialty. This work has been carried out with the assistance of the Agency for the Development of Human Capital in the Russian Far East, and headed by Mr. Alexander Galushka, the Ministry for Development of the Russian Far East. As one of the leading projects in the EAO region, K&S will benefit from the new educational programmes and will be able to hire home-grown talents.

Previously, the mining engineers at K&S were educated in other regions. Now that the Amur State University has obtained the licence to conduct mining courses, there should be a greater supply of mining experts to the local region which will benefit K&S. According to the Principal of the Amur State University, Ms. Natalia Bazhenova, the first enrolment into the "Mineral Processing" course will start in September 2017. All practical classes of the course will take place at the K&S processing plant, allowing the students to gain first-hand experiences. This will not only improve the quality of the training but will also help improve the local employment rate.

Commenting on the news above, Yury Makarov, Chief Executive Officer of IRC said: "The introduction of new mining specialty courses in the local EAO University is a very important and timely step to K&S. This also echoes with what the Russian government emphasised at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum - "Injecting Dynamism in the Russian Far East Economy", especially in creating a mining and metallurgical cluster in the Amur Region. K&S has been sourcing specialists from wherever possible, both from within and outside of Russia. Now, we can not only recruit mining specialists in close proximity to our production but will also be able to provide job opportunities to the local EAO community."

By Order of the Board

Chief Executive Officer

Hong Kong, People's Republic of China Tuesday, 27 June 2017

As at the date of this announcement, the Executive Directors of the Company are Mr Yury Makarov and Mr Danila Kotlyarov. The Non-Executive Directors are Mr George Jay Hambro, Mr Cai Sui Xin (Mr Benjamin Ng as his alternate), Mr Raymond Kar Tung Woo and Mr Cheng Chi Kin. The Independent Non-Executive Directors are Mr Daniel Bradshaw, Mr Simon Murray, CBE, Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Mr Chuang-Fei Li and Mr Jonathan Martin Smith.

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