From the Founder-Editor

As Mongolia abandons its remoteness and as desolate wildernesses in the country reverberate with the sounds of men at work and the noise of machinery and equipment in use, various new concepts will increasingly feature in our public discourse and new terminologies connected to new events will be entering our vocabulary.  Joining the league in the global mining sector means we have to get familiar with different kinds of relations and concepts. We have to master mining economics, with all its ramifications. Not just the theory behind it, but all its practical day-to-day applications, too, will have to be clearly understood and practised.

New technology will be in use, a sound banking system will have to manage the large amounts of money circulating along the financial veins and branching out to sectors like investment, supply chain, human resources etc. We shall influence and be influenced by what the Development Bank does, what the Law on Concession implies, what the Fund of Stability provides, and what the Law on Budget Stability achieves. Mining production will be entering our lives in ways unknown to us now. 

The Mongolian Government has officially announced that mining is a high priority sector of the economy. Every week the Cabinet discusses and decides on issues relating to major projects. The MMJ has been keeping readers informed of these resolutions of the Cabinet. We published in the last issue details of the plans approved by the Cabinet on building a Heavy Industry Complex in Sainshand soum, Dornogobi aimag. This month, we enumerate other major projects discussed and approved by the Cabinet. We have also been giving detailed information on different aspects of infrastructure projects, including new railway lines, State resolutions, and the views and perspectives of national policy and decision makers, and of international financial organizations.

This issue of the MMJ publishes the text of the draft Law on Concession, the first draft law slated to be discussed by the Autumn session of Parliament. We published the Mongolian version of the Law on Nuclear Energy in our 7th issue and now post the English version. Re-registration of uranium licences will start soon, and the present issue features a detailed explanation of the whole process by the Head of the Licence Department at the Nuclear Energy Agency. The Government is expected to revise the structure of the Agency soon, sanctioning more staff to give it more teeth.
As the mining sector opens up to lead Mongolia to a brave, new world, the technology used in all spheres will be observed carefully. We welcome the views of professionals and scholars alike on this and related matters. Indeed the time has come when the perspectives of professionals will carry more weight when decisions are taken.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Geology Sector in Mongolia. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my greetings and congratulations to all whose commitment and hard work -- in exploration, extraction and infrastructure development – in the past decades prepared the ground for today’s new starts to sprout and grow unhindered.