Report of Independent Public Accountants

To the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board of Severočeské doly a.s.:

We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of Severočeské doly a.s. (a Czech joint-stock company, “the Company”) as of December 31, 2001 and 2000, and the related statements of income, shareholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2001. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Severočeské doly a.s., as of December 31, 2001 and 2000, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2001, in conformity with International Financial Reporting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.
As discussed in note 2 to the financial statements, in 2001 the Company adopted International Accounting Standard IAS 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement.

Arthur Andersen Česká republika, k.s.

22 February 2002
Husova 5
110 00 Prague 1