CHINA TO IMPORT 1 BILLION TONS OF MONGOLIA’S COAL

On April 30 2014, a press conference called ‘Transparent Mining’ was organized by the Ministry for Mining. At the beginning of the press conference, an introduction on current activity of the coal sector was given to the public. “During an official visit by Prime Minister N. Altankhuyag to the People’s Republic of China on October 22-26, 2013, Mongolia’s giant coal mining companies, including Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, Energy Resource and Tavan Tolgoi concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese Shenhua Energy Company to export 1 billion tons of coal to China over the next 20 years. On April 17, 2014, , Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi Company signed an agreement with Chinese Shenhua Bayanoerenergy under the umbrella of this document to trade 450,000 tons of coal for USD48.5 per ton. An advance of USD17.4 million was transferred to the bank account of the Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi Company” said Ya.Batsuuri, General Director of the Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi Company. In order to accelerate coal export, software was introduced which lets drivers transporting coal through the Gashuunsukhait border checkpoint enter the country using fingerprint identification. Previously, the drivers spent much time standing in queue to get their passports stamped. As a result of the software, the drivers get their fingerprints scanned in 20-30 seconds without getting out of the truck to cross the border. At the press conference, the issue of gold extraction was touched upon. Since implementing new amendments to the mining law, a total of 2.040 kg gold was sold to the Mongolbank, an increase of 1.8 times compared with the same period of the previous year. To increase gold extraction, a program called ‘Measures on simplifying the gold sector’ financial system was ratified by a joint decree of the President of Mongolbank, the Minister of Economic Development and the Mining Minister. According to this program, gold companies will receive medium and long term funding if they get involved in the program. Presently, there are 75 companies that operate in gold extraction. As of the first quarter of 2014, copper concentrate output was recorded at 228.5 thousands tons; its performance is 124.3 percent while molybdenum production stood at 837.2 ton or at 192 percent. Meanwhile, coal extraction was 4.5 million tons at the performance rate of 88 percent. Gold extraction volume reached 1.05 tons, fluorspar, 62.3 thousand tons, iron, 540 thousand ton and zinc, 26.9 thousand tons. Oil extraction volume was 1.56 million barrels and its performance stood at 177.7 percent.