Discover Mongolia 2018 promises opportunities

Continuing on from coal, Mongolia’s mining sector stakeholders and investors are gathering up for international mining investors’ forum Discover Mongolia 2018, which is being held under the theme Acknowledge to Advance, in which updated results of several noteworthy projects were disclosed. The 16th edition of the two-day forum is jointly organized by the Government of Mongolia, Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, Mongolian National Mining Association and Business Council of Mongolia, and aims to introduce advantages, opportunities of Mongolia’s mining sector, as well as pressing issues and solutions.

At the forum, David Paull, Managing Director and Chair of the Aspire Mining Limited, delivered a speech themed Northern Mongolia’s Role As a Supplier of Coking Coal. He remarked, “Mining development in Mongolia’s northern region is highly beneficial. We have found a giant coking coal reserves that can account for 20-30 percent of the nation’s total coal export. Therefore, instead of the traditional method, we are planning to establish a plant with necessary technology to improve coal quality. These can be exported if transportation conditions improve. The transportation can be conducted by road and rail. Obviously railroad will create competitive price. Which is why, there are several companies interested in partnering with the railway corridor project. We perceive the corridor will run to black sea.” Although the company currently raised a small amount of investment of about USD 60 million, Mr. David Paull assured the amount will increase without much of a difficulty as the company has several major partners and several investors already expressed interest in the project.

Later on, Bataa Tumur-Ochir, Director and Vice President Mongolia Steppe Gold, briefed that Steppe Gold successfully raised USD 25 million through an IPO at the Toronto Stock Exchange in May 2018. This allowed the company to complete the preparatory works for an exploration in July and thus, commencing construction works. “As of today, our company is implementing four projects in Dornod and Bayankhongor aimags. Our flagship project is the Atlan Tsagaan Ovoo (ATO) gold and silver project. The initial cost of the deposit is fairly low; for instance, we are extracting one ounce of gold with USD 430-450 cost. The reported gold reserves of the deposit is 1.26 million ounce,” addressed Mr. Bataa. Another advantage of ATO is that the company fully settled the necessary funding for the project. He added, “We are planning to utilize high-end technologies and some of them have already been landed at the site. We received all the related permissions to operate the mine and signed a contract with the key subcontractor. ”

Another key presentation was the Kharmagtai Project of Xanadu Mines. Andrew Steward, Managing Director and CEO of the Xanadu Mines, noted that the company spent around USD 25 million in the last 5-6 years for Kharmagtai deposit. He disclosed that the exploration work has been completed and the next phase of the project is expected to commence in early-October. “This project is generally similar to Oyu Tolgoi deposit. Copper extracts have high mineralization according to test results and the drilling showed significant potentials for a higher-grade open pit starter project. Since the deposit is near the earth’s surface, the cost is expected to be low,” stressed Mr. Andrew. He added, “As I mentioned earlier, the project has a huge advantage being similar to Oyu Tolgoi and Tavan Tolgoi, allowing these projects to cooperate on developing infrastructure.”