Moscow, Russia – October 12, 2012 – Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announces that its subsidiary Mechel Mining OAO won the Minex-2012 Mining Excellence Award’s Investor of the Year nomination for implementing the project on development of the Elga coal deposit.

The award committee’s independent experts evaluated the amount of work done over the past year and in an open poll and acknowledged Mechel’s contribution in developing Russia’s mining industry. Investment in the Elga Coal Complex development project totaled some 1.44 billion dollars by December 31, 2011, with approximately 1.42 billion dollars more due to be invested in 2012-2014.

This is the second time in a row that the company won the Minex Mining Excellence Award. In 2011, Mechel’s Elga project won the award “For Successful Development of a Mining Industry Project” nomination.

“Over the year that passed since the last Minex forum, we made great progress in developing the Elga coal deposit. In December 2011, we finished laying tracks of the 321-kilometer Elga-Ulak railway, which links the complex with Baikal-Amur Mainline. This year we built a washing plant of some 3-million-tonne annual capacity, in record time, and are constantly buying necessary equipment to develop the complex’s infrastructure and technical base. Elga Coal Complex’s further implementation and reaching its project capacity will not only mean a dynamic future for Mechel’s mining division, but also make a major contribution into development of our country’s Far East,” Mechel Mining OAO’s Chief Executive Officer Igor Zyuzin noted.