Mongolia- Russia-China Border Railway Commission holds annual meeting

The Mongolia- Russia-China Border Railway Commission meeting began in Ulaanbaatar on Monday. This annual conference has been held since 1956 with the three countries playing host by turn. The Russian team was led by the A.I. Chernikh, Chief of the Transportation Center of the Sibir Railway, and the Chinese team by Ma Tsyan Fei, Deputy Chief of Chinese Railway Transportation.

Briefing media, Chernikh said that they had exchanged views on how to improve services, and reviewed implementation of the decisions reached at last year’s meeting in Khuhhot. Freight and passenger train transportation would be thoroughly discussed. 1.5 million tons of freight has passed through Mongolia-Russia borders so far this year. The Russian Railway has been reformed and the private sector is now very active.

D.Jigjidnyamaa of the Ulaanbaatar Railway added that the conference was focusing on technical issues and also discussing revision of border crossing and customs procedures. He said increased freight rates have had no effect on the volume transported but the work load relating to freight transfer in Zamiin-Uud and Ereen has to be eased.

“Discover Mongolia 2010”

“Discover Mongolia 2010” on September 8-10

 The Organizing Committee of Discover Mongolia has announced that the 8th annual International Mining Investors Forum will be held in Ulaanbaatar on September 8-10. “Mongolia is an exciting frontier in minerals industry where world class deposits are being discovered. Among them are the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposit and Tavan Tolgoi- the world’s largest undeveloped coking coal deposit and many others” said Mr. Ankhbayar Gurdorj, Chairman of the Organizing Committee.

Mongolia welcomes investment in minerals business, and “Discover Mongolia” International Mining Investors Forum remains a resourceful base to launch and expand businesses, establish new contacts, learn of the latest developments and make deals.

In 2009, the 7th “Discover Mongolia” Forum was organized by the Mongolian National Mining Association alone, but this year, the founding members have decided to help in the efforts of the MNMA to add more value to the Forum and reinvigorate the business and entrepreneurial spirit among the participating investors by boosting the quality, content and scope of the Forum events.

Push to draw Chinalco into Oyu Tolgoi project

The governments of China and Mongolia are discussing a potential labour agreement which, if finalised, will transfer 2500 Chinese to work for the copper-gold mining project Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, the 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday.

A person involved in the talks, who was not named, said the earliest a decision about whether Chinalco could participate in the development of the Oyu Tolgoi project may come next month.

If the government labour agreement is signed, the person said in the report that the chance for Chinalco to take part in the project would be higher.

Chinalco is now an indirect participant of the mine because it has roughly 9 per cent stake in Rio Tinto, which has a 22.4 per cent stake in Ivanhoe, the operator of Oyu Tolgoi project — the largest under-developed gold-copper mine in the world.

Rio has an option to increase its stake in Ivanhoe to 46.6 per cent eventually. Ivanhoe Mines has increased the expected production from the $US4.6 billion ($5.1bn) Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia.

 

It puts average annual output from the South Gobi desert mine at 540,000 tonnes of copper and 670,000 ounces of gold over a 27-year life, with first production in 2013.

 

Ivanhoe executive chairman Robert Friedland has said the company expects these results will continue to improve to where Oyu Tolgoi will rank alongside Grasberg and Escondida.

 

Ivanhoe has appointed Citi to review its options, including debt or equity raisings, sale of subsidiaries, project financing or other corporate transactions.

   

Source: business-mongolia

SouthGobi to repurchase 2.5 million common shares

The Board of Directors of SouthGobi Resources has authorized a share repurchase program to purchase up to 2.5 million common shares of the company on each or either of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in aggregate representing approximately up to 5 million common shares or 2.7% of the current outstanding common shares of the company. The share repurchase program will commence on June 15. The Board decided on the repurchase program “as the current market price may not reflect the underlying value of SouthGobi"s common shares”. The program is not expected to impact on SouthGobi"s growth plans.

Mongolia and China sign documents

The sides have inked some documents after the negotiations between Mongolia and the People's Republic of China. Firstly, the officials of the sides signed a Mongolia-China inter-governmental treaty on the Mongolia-China boundary regime and an inter-governmental agreement on the economic and technical cooperation.

 The countries also inked governmental exchange of notes on founding a street named after Beijing with money of a non-refundable aid rendered from China's government and inter-governmental protocols "On resuming and altering the agreement of mutual recognition of educational certificates and academic degrees", "On implementing the Mongolia-China inter-governmental agreement on cooperation in customs and mutual assistance, established September 7 of 1993" and an inter-governmental protocol on exchanging information between the General Customs Offices of Mongolia and the PRC.

 

Special loan agreements were inked between the countries for a sub-project of buying a locomotive in frames of the project on improving infrastructure of the railways' rolling stock to be financed with a soft loan of USD 300 million from the Chinese government, and for improving an infrastructure of Zamyn-Uud soum with this soft loan from China.

 

The bilateral final document is a mutual understanding memorandum between Mongolia's Nuclear Energy Agency and the PRC's National Nuclear Corporation on cooperation in the spheres of radioactive minerals and nuclear energy.

 

Source: Montsame