30 December 2013

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IRC: PARTIAL SUBSCRIPTION OF

GENERAL NICE FURTHER SUBSCRIPTION SHARES

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Further to the Circular issued by Petropavlovsk PLC ("Petropavlovsk" or the "Company") on 18 February 2013 and previous announcements by IRC Limited ("IRC") and the Company,??Petropavlovsk announces that IRC has today announced that it has allotted and issued 218,340,000 of new Shares to General Nice for HK$205.2 million (approximately US$26.5 million) as partial subscription of General Nice Further Subscription Shares.?? As a consequence of the allotment of new Shares to General Nice the Company's shareholding in IRC has reduced from 51.16% to 48.70%.

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General Nice has informed IRC that it is not in a position to complete the remainder of the General Nice Further Subscription at present, and consequently neither the remainder of the General Nice Further Subscription nor the Minmetals Cheerglory Subscription will take place today as planned. ??IRC is in discussions with General Nice, Mr Cai Sui Xin (the controlling shareholder and Chairman of General Nice) and Minmetals Cheerglory about a possible further deferred completion and other available options.

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Further details and the full text of the announcement released by IRC can be found on its website at www.ircgroup.com.hk.

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IRC is a producer and developer of industrial commodities and was the Group's former Non-Precious Metals Division, prior to its listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (stock code 1029).

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Enquiries??

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