Russia's top gold miner Polyus Gold said on Friday its output of the precious metal rose 16 percent year on year to 1.1 million ounces in the first nine months of this year.

These figures are testament to ... the successful ramp-up and optimisation programmes at our producing assets, COO James Nieuwenhuis said in a statement.

Production includes 1,018 thousand ounces of refined gold produced by Russia-based units and 89,000 thousand ounces produced by Polyus' Kazakh business unit , the statement said.

Output in the third quarter rose by 9 percent to 496,000 ounces, it said.

Polyus, controlled by businessmen Mikhail Prokhorov and Suleiman Kerimov, aims to be a UK-domiciled company with a premium London listing by the end of the year, a move that could see it join the FTSE 100.

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