PBS Coals Limited Announces Receipt of CFIUS Approval

PBS Coals Limited announces that PBS Coals Corporation and a subsidiary of Severstal Resources have received written confirmation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) under the Exon-Florio Amendment to the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, that no second-stage investigation will be initiated in respect of the joint application submitted by Severstal and PBS Coals Corporation.

As previously announced by PBS on October 11, 2008, the expiration date of the offer (the “Offer”) has been extended by Severstal to 11:59 p.m. (Toronto time) on October 20, 2008, as detailed in the Notice of Extension to be filed by Severstal with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities.

Severstal has agreed to take up and pay for all shares deposited to the Offer within three business days of the new expiry date provided the conditions of the Offer have been satisfied. All conditions to the Offer have been satisfied as at the date of this release.

PBS Coals Limited owns 87% of the equity of the PBS Coals Group of Companies, a privately held group of companies engaged in the mining, processing and sale of primarily metallurgical coal from their properties in West-Central Pennsylvania (the “PBS Group”). The PBS Group consists of PBS Coals, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and Rox Coal, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, and their subsidiaries and holding companies. The PBS Group currently produces approximately 3 million clean tons of bituminous coal a year from both its underground and surface operations. The PBS Group has six surface and six underground mines in operation, and controls 153.3 million tons of measured and indicated coal resources with an additional 98.3 million tons of contingent resources.