PARTS OF SPEECH

“Some private companies should be absorbed by the government. We do not want to lose precious time competing against one another. It is both reasonable and possible to compete with companies from other nations.”

J. Oyungerel, chairperson, Petrovis LLC.

“Our people demand that the government does everything possible not to let one country dominate the economy. But I don’t think the law (under discussion) will be retroactive. The Chalco deal is still ongoing, still on the table. It would only apply to investment in certain deposits, but there must be some sort of threshold.”

Chuluun Ganhuyag, Vice Finance Minister.


“Mongolians see the Chalco-SouthGobi deal as creeping Chinese state domination of their economy, which is not welcome. We treasure our economic and political independence and will do whatever is necessary to protect it.”

Unnamed“senior executive in Mongolia”, quoted in a Reuters report.

“Foreign countries are stealing Mongolian natural resources behind our backs, while Mongolians are making it a political issue among ourselves. CHALCO will own 57.6% of a coal mine that has reserves of over 500 tons of coal. China is becoming both the coal supplier and buyer for Mongolia.”

G.Bayarsaikhan, Member of the State Great Khural.

“Ivanhoe MinesCEO Robert Friedman sold SouthGobi Sands, thus overstepping limits and underestimating the Mongolian people and the Government. National security demands ensuring that Mongolia’s national property does not become the property of Chinese government.”

Ts.Sedvanchig, Member of the State Great Khural.

“During the Manchu Period, the Mongolian affairs were discussed and resolved in Beijing. Once again, it now seems the destiny of Mongolian mining is to be decided by Beijing.”

G.Bayarsaikhan, Member of the State Great Khural.

“The mineral resources still belong to the Mongolian people. Companies should understand that owning stocks does not necessarily mean owning the resources. I don’t think there can be a perfect law or that there is any country with one, but we want to be clear.”

M. Ariunbayar, acting Director of the Mineral Resources Authority.

“The Ivanhoe Mines(SouthGobi)-Chalco transaction is commercially competitive and we are going to seek to understand the government’s position now that we are the new management of Ivanhoe.”

Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto’s chief executive officer.

The SouthGobi Sands sale is in the open, but who knows how many other companies are selling their mining licenses? It is only fair that when a company decides to sell its mining licences, the transactions should require the permission of the Government of Mongolia, which will check if the buying companies are owned by any foreign Government.There are several strategic deposits in Mongolia passing into foreign hands under the guise of transfer of licence.”

B.Batjargal, Member of the State Great Khural.

“I’m not aware of any other country with such fast growth as Mongolia is now experiencing,but very little of it is real growth. Most of it is from inflation and has done little to affect individuals’ purchasing power. Cash handouts have caused this inflation and made the country more vulnerable to external shocks. It’s likely to stay in the double digits this year and throughout the next.”

Jan Hansen, Senior Country Economist, Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“Basic data from the World Bank Doing Business survey show that wasteful spending in Mongolia has resulted already in a loss of almost USD20 million annually in unnecessary document costs; USD80 million in lost opportunity costs; more than USD2 billion in reduced trade volumes and the associated loss of about USD154 million in revenues collected by the Customs General Administration from imports; and nearly USD2 billion lost in gross domestic product growth.”

USAID report.

Everyone criticises the mining industry, and seems to see it as the worst sector, forgetting that this is the sector that feeds Mongolians. Instead of cursing it, let’s praise it”.

B. Batkhuu, senior official at the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy.

“Most observers rank Mongolia as the fastest growing economy in the years to come. It has huge future revenues potential and is blessed with key resources for a hungry growing world, and is costs-advantaged by being right next door to the largest commodity consumer of them all, China.”

Arild Johansen, a partner of FMG, a specialist in emerging markets investments.

“Parliament took USD 250 million as advance price for Tavan Tolgoi coal, and spent it handing out cash to the public. Now, Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi doesn’t have any working capital.”

D.Jargalsaikhan, economist.

“In my view, the diverse foreign investors hoping to develop the western block of Tavan Tolgoi are a very difficult group to put together into a consortium.We’ve got a pretty good chance it will never happen.”

Graeme Hancock, CEO of Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi.

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