Recent news
Aspire starts work on Erdenet-Ovoot railway
Work on laying the tracks of Australia-listed Aspire Mining’s 547-km-long Erdenet-Ovoot railway formally began on 20 June. The project has been entrusted to Northern Railways LLC, a subsidiary of the company, and is expected to be ready for traffic in 2022. When complete, the railway will go up to the Russian border at Arts Suuri, where it will be connected to the Russian Trans Siberian Railway through Kyzyl city’s port, and thus become part of the Russia-Mongolia-China Economic Corridor.
Energy Resources gets ready to expand operations
Expecting the market to be more positive, Energy Resources, which runs the Ukhaakhudag coking coal mine in the southern gobi, is planning to be ready to operate all three units of its coal handling plant there from the autumn. Currently two units are active. The company feels it will need to raise production capacity if demand increases, as many feel it will.
Umnugobi shows the way in local involvement
Mongolia’s largest aimag, Umnugobi, has acquired the status of a “strategic aimag”, with its three strategically important deposits contributing significantly to the country’s economy. It is also one of the few aimags that do not accept any subsidy from the state budget.
New President, new equations
This year’s Presidential election was the first time a second round of polling was necessary, but apart from that, what was most notable about this election was that if the candidates’ expenses ran into hundreds of billions of MNT, the campaign promises exceeded that amount by several times.
Cleaning up laws in the mineral sector
The list above is of the main laws that govern the mineral sector. They will soon receive a thorough clean-up to remove contradictions and conflicts between them, and to make them more coherent and complementary.
“We must respect local citizens’ views”
The thrust on reviving mineral exploration has led to a decision to issue special exploration permits on 41.4 million hectares of land, or 26.4% of Mongolian territory. Permits for 31.2 million hectares will be issued under application, while those on the remaining 10.2 million hectares will be decided under the selection process. N.Ariuntuya spoke to B.Baatartsogt, Head of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority, to find out where and how matters stand.
Coal’s come back year
The first five months of the year saw Mongolia exporting 15 million tonnes of coal and earning $1 billion from it, taking us back to the heady days of 2011 when more coal than ever before was exported. Then, as now, the export success gave a big boost to a national economy in crisis.
Copper smelter proposed at Khanbogd will need $2 billion to build
Overturning the previous Government’s decision to build the proposed copper concentrate smelting and refining plant in Bor-Undur soum of Khentii aimag, the present Government recently approved an old suggestion by the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry to set it up in Khanbogd soum of Umnugovi aimag.
Electing a president and a prime minister’s visit
ALL eyes will be on the Presidential election until voting day on 26 June, and maybe for some time even after that. This is the seventh such direct election and the winner will be the fifth president of the country.
Q1 export revenue, trade surplus highest ever
Figures revealed by the National Statistics Office show that foreign trade turnover in the first quarter of 2017 reached $2.76 billion, the highest amount for the first quarter in the past 5 years. Export revenue reached $1.3 billion, a 35% increase on a YoY basis, and also the highest first quarter earning ever, largely due to the fivefold increase in coal export earnings.
“Only consistency can bring back trust, but it takes time”
Australia-listed Aspire Mining Ltd, the largest coal tenement holder in the Orkhon-Selenge Coal Basin in northern Mongolia, is also the sole owner of its flagship Ovoot project, the second largest coking coal deposit by reserves in Mongolia. MMJ talks to David Paull, Managing Director of the company, on various issues in the Mongolian mining sector.
