Shareholders in Polyus Gold, Russia's largest gold miner, yesterday elected another independent director to the company's board as its two main billionaire shareholders continued to battle for control.

Preliminary voting results disclosed by the company indicated the nine-man board would include two representatives of Vladimir Potanin's Interros group, while his former business partner, Mikhail Prokhorov, also won two seats on the board directly for his Onexim Group, including a seat for himself. Evgeny Ivanov, the Polyus chief executive, was also re-elected to the board, as was the chairman of one of Polyus's main subsidiaries, Valery Rudakov.