Recent news
A forum to restore trust and revive faith
N.Ariuntuya finds out from D.Bat-Erdene, advisor to the Minister of Mining, what the Ministry hopes to achieve from the “Minerals Sector – 2025” forum it is holding on January 15.
‘Crawling depreciation’ and ‘Expansionary policy’
Two new terms were introduced into the Mongolian economic discourse this year: ‘Crawling depreciation’ and ‘Expansionary policy’. The first was used to define the economic trend and the second to describe the nature of our monetary policy.
What do Chinese figures prefigure for Mongolia?
One way of not buckling under the Ulaanbaatar winter is to keep your self-esteem high, with artificial inflation, if necessary (as certainly in the case of yours truly). Only that can extenuate my choice of topic this month.
Japanese researcher fears radiation exposure among herders
In a bid to gauge the extent of radioactive contamination in Mongolia, Ryoko Imaoka, an associate professor of Mongolian studies at Osaka University, has been supplying used cameras to herders so they can document the frequency of deformed livestock, which appears to be on the increase, particularly near uranium mines.“With the transition to a market-based economy rapidly in progress, environmental pollution is becoming a serious problem,” said Imaoka, 51.
OT to produce more than Erdenet in 2014
The present year should see production volume at Oyu Tolgoi surpass that of Erdenet, according to the latest update on the project jointly presented by the Prime Minister and Erdenes OT directors in December.
Mining Journal Awards 2013 Defying the crisis
Given the pall of gloom and uncertainty that hung over the whole mineral sector in 2013, we at the Mongolian Mining Journal were not sure if it would be right this year to organise the annual Mining Journal Awards.
Robert Friedland, executive chairperson of Ivanhoe Mines.
“You have to have the courage of your conviction, we have to be thinking of 2019 or 2022 as if it were tomorrow. It is an ugly, long-term, difficult, 19th-century business, but anyone who tells you the supercycle is over is an idiot.”
Chances of 600.000 tonne per annum coal conversion plant brighten
Confirmation that Mongolian brown coal is suited for conversion into higher value products using Coal Plus -- a proprietary coal upgrading technology -- paves the way for Jatenergy’s agreement with Monrospromugoli to go ahead, and finally to result in a 600,000-tonne conversion plant that will generate annual royalties of US$1.76 million.
Checking on how companies curb corruption
Care for it or not, any Transparency International (hereafter TI) report gets handsome media coverage in every country, even where it has no direct relevance. If a country is seen as having improved on its perceived performance recorded in the previous year’s report – as Mongolia has done in this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) – it raises expectations of a rise in foreign investment.
Fitch revises Mongolia outlook to Negative from Stable
Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlooks on Mongolia’s Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to Negative from Stable and affirmed the IDRs at ‘B+’. The Country Ceiling is affirmed at ‘B+’ and the Short-Term Foreign-Currency IDR at ‘B’. The issue ratings on Mongolia’s senior unsecured foreign- and local-currency bonds are also affirmed at ‘B+’.
TT power plant to follow global best practices
The planned thermal power plant based on Tavan Tolgoi coal is to be built with both Government and private investment. The Head of the Tavan Tolgoi Electrical Plant Proposal Department, Dr of Economics M. Enkhsaikhan, describes how things are progressing.
The over whelming burden of compensation
A prospecting company denied a mining licence under the ‘long-titled’ law is preparing to claim nearly $500 million from the State in court. It obtained the prospecting licence before the law was passed in 2009 and thereafter spent more than $10 million on the prospecting work.
Mongolia signs deal with illegal gold miners
The government has signed a deal with the country’s gold producers association, which aims to reduce illegal extraction of the metal by reducing barriers for them to become formal miners.
Taxes as important as dividend from OT
Intense discussions between the Mongolian side and Rio Tinto are on, and three separate committees with members from both sides are holding talks on how the initial investmenton OT had been spent, if the Feasibility Study needs change, and how to find finances to develop the underground mine. Meanwhile, no one is certain how long additional financing for the underground mine at Oyu Tolgoi is to remain suspended.
Shenhua to buy 1 billion tons of TT coal, build railway
Ya. Batsuuri, CEO of state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, has said three mining companies have agreed to export 1 billion tons of coal to China’s Shenhua Group Corp. in the next 20 years. The total value of the exports at current prices would be about $50 billion
Khan Resources not alone in opting for arbitration
Toronto-based Khan Resources is gambling that an international arbitration case in Paris will allow it to regain control of a uranium project that, it claims, was illegally expropriated by the Mongolian government, leaving it with nothing but angry investors.
