 Polyus was founded as Polyus Gold () in March 2006, as a result of a spin-off from the gold assets of Norilsk Nickel.In May 2006, shares of Polyus Gold were admitted to listing and trading on the Russian stock exchanges RTS and MICEX (both of these later merged to form the Moscow Exchange).In December 2006, ADRs of Polyus Gold were listed and admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange.