Cerillion Regulatory News (CER)

24 Nov 2005 10:53

Celtic Resources Holdings PLC24 November 2005 Celtic Resources Holdings Plc ("Celtic" or "the Company") Celtic wins legal case in Russia The Board of Celtic is now pleased to confirm that it has won an important courtcase in relation to activities of the "South Verkhoyansk Mining Company"("SVMC") which owns the Nezhdaninskoye gold mine. On 8 November 2005 the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)granted a decision in favour of Celtic. This ruled that a meeting held by theboard of directors of SVMC on 26 September 2002 was convened illegally and wastherefore invalid and that the resolutions decided upon at that meeting werealso invalid. This meeting was held without Celtic's knowledge at the time. During this meeting several resolutions detrimental to Celtic's rights wereillegally passed. These decisions subsequently led to the: • replacement of Celtic's representative as the Chairman of the Board of SVMC; • calling of an extraordinary shareholder meeting on 22 November 2002, that Celtic has never recognized as being legal; • creation of a parallel shareholder register of SVMC, which Celtic also deems to be invalid; and • transformation of SVMC from a Closed Joint Stock Company into an Open Joint Stock Company. Subject to further appeal the recent Court decision has very importantimplications for Celtic. The judgement of 8 November 2005 invalidates all boarddecisions flowing from the 26 September 2002 board meeting. In addition to theabove this would include decisions regarding the transfer of shares to IG Alrosaand the subsequent sale to Polyus. Peter Hannen, Chairman of Celtic, commented, "This is a very important step inthe right direction for Celtic and confirms the Board's continued belief in theCompany's legal right to its 50 per cent. holding in SVMC. We will continue toproceed through the correct legal channels to resolve these issues in order toadvance to our ultimate aim of developing the Nezhdaninskoye gold mine." For further information please contact: Kevin Foo / Kate Dexter Smith Leesa Peters / Laurence ReadCeltic Resources Holdings Plc Conduit PRTel: + 44 (0)20 7921 8800 Tel: +44 (0)781 215 9885 / +44 (0)20 7618 8708Investors@celticresources.com leesa@conduitpr.com Frank Moxon / Nick MorganWilliams de Broe PlcTel: +44 (0)20 7588 7511 www.celticresources.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange