Spain to close most coal mines by end of 2018 www.mining.com

Spain will close most of its coal mines by the end of the year after government and unions reached a deal that will see €250 million invested in mining regions over the next ten years, The Guardian reported today.

Model road built in Khovd aimag benefits local people www.montsame.mn

Citizens of Khovd aimag are happy with spending 4-5 hours on the road where it used to require two days before. What is more, paved road between Khovd aimag and the border with China was built with financing of the Government, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Exim Bank and was put into operation three years ago.

ADB Country Director for Mongolia Yolanda Fernandez Lommen visited the aimag last week to familiarize with how local people are benefitting from the road that connected north and south borders of Mongolia.

Within the framework of Western Regional Road Corridor Investment Program, 404 km of paved road out of 740 km was built with funding of the ADB. Thanks to the paved road the citizens began to benefit by saving their time, promptly receiving medical services, getting rid of technical damages in vehicles and profiting from their businesses. It also helps expand international trade and economic cooperation. The world-standard auto road with guardrails, flood protection dam, rest areas and road signs could be model infrastructure in road sector of Mongolia.

Ms. Yolanda Fernandez Lommen said that the paved road developed in Khovd aimag, center of the western region, commissioned in 2015. The ADB funded it with about USD 200 million. Construction of roads and buildings run for a short period of time in Mongolia due to the extreme weather conditions. Furthermore, Khovd aimag is a rocky and mountainous area and flooding and natural factors caused much obstacle in the road construction. I am delightful that Mongolia now has a road that satisfies international standard. It is a special road as it gives benefits not only to Mongolia but also other countries.

Citizens of Khovd aimag shared their impression on the new paved road.

Citizen of Bichigt bag (smallest administration unit) of Jargalant soum B.Jantsan noted that the road is not only fruitful for Mongolia also for Russia and China. Prior to having the new road, only UAZ-469, Russian made van and heavy trucks used to travel. Whereas the new road provides us with opportunity to travel by passenger car. Our soum is truly developing in keeping with the road. It brought many achievements to our life such as receiving medical services directly and catching a bus between Khovd and Ulaanbaatar city without going to the aimag center. Our bag locates 210 km from the aimag center and now it takes just two hours to reach there. Road quality is in good condition and we should pay attention on road maintenance further.

Whereas Citizen of Mankhan soum Kh.Tsendee shared her impression by saying that the paved road built with finance of the ADB is making much contribution to our life. It has been facilitating our work and eases life. Our family runs canteen, grocery and tire repairing service along the road. Before, a few of people used to receive our service, but more people get to receive our service due to increased passenger flow thanks to the new road and now our profit has been risen. Therefore, I am expressing my gratitude to all people who built the new road and made investment to the construction.

Altai soum of Khovd aimag has a population of 3219 or 808 households. More than 200 citizens of the soum were employed for assistant works of the road construction. In order to extend life of the road, the soum authorities intend to establish the road capacity control zone and reflected it in the landuse plan. The control zone will allow to control all vehicles travelling on the road. Ore transport from Naranbulag soum of Uvs aimag pass through here and we will put control on heavy trucks transporting 24-26 tons of freight. This movement will be stopped and we will focus our attention on road maintenance and protection, talked N.Burged, Head of Citizens Representatives Khural of Altai soum of Khovd aimag.
Such as this, citizens spoke about how the road built within Western Regional Road Corridor Investment Program leads them to the development.

Moreover, road construction process of the phase II project with funding of the ADB is running at about 90 percent performance reported specialist at advisory team of Western Regional Road Corridor Investment Program Ch.Enkhjargal.

Within the scope of the phase II project, 53.9 km of paved road from Khovd aimag to Shurga’s bridge is being built by HKB International Holding LLC. A total of 280 machineries and vehicles and over 400 workers were mobilized for the road construction work. Whereas 50 km of paved road from Shurga’s bridge to Khashaatiin Davaa pass is being developed by China Huashi Enterprises Limited LLC and being monitored by Indian-Mongolian joint ICT Company. Currently, Mongolia has a road network of about 48,538 km, but only about 13.2 per cent are paved—a situation that affects the country’s growth prospects, particularly on jobs, trade, and connectivity. The road project and its attached technical assistance prove that it improves Mongolia’s road asset management practices. and investment in road improvement and maintenance is crucial as it creates jobs, provides people with better connectivity and access to markets and public services such as schools and hospitals, and improves road safety.

Hong Kong and New York exchanges requested to trade Tavan Tolgoi stocks www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On October 25, Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry D.Sumiyabazar gave briefing on the preparation work for trade of ‘Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi’ stocks on the international markets.

Google sacks dozens over sexual harassment www.bbc.com

Google has sacked 48 people including 13 senior managers over sexual harassment claims since 2016.

Mongolia bans Halloween celebrations in all schools www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Mongolian government announced Thursday that all general education schools in the country are no longer allowed to celebrate Halloween.

Interview: China contributes significantly to Mongolia's infrastructure development: minister www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- China has contributed significantly to Mongolia's infrastructure development and improved people's living conditions by supporting the country's major construction projects, Mongolian Minister of Construction and Urban Development Khavdislam Badyelkhan has said.

Chita, Russia's Siberian crossroads, on the doorstep of China & Mongolia www.euronews.com

Chita is one of the largest cities in Eastern Siberia. The famous Trans-Siberian railway passes through here, connecting two continents - Europe and Asia. Due to its geographical position, Chita has always been at the crossroads of cultures.

We came here with bloggers from different parts of the world, participants in the international cross-cultural program Follow Up Siberia, organised by Norilsk Nickel, in order to acquaint active young people with the real Siberia ahead of the upcoming Winter Universiade.

The Transbaikal region has a common border with two countries at once - China and Mongolia. This fact largely determines the cultural diversity of the region.

In Chita you can find the oldest wooden church in the Russian Far East - the famous Decembrist Church. But there is also one of the largest Buddhist temples in Russia - the Aginsky datsan.

Buddhism in Transbaikalia was introduced by Mongolian and Tibetan lamas in the 16th - 17th centuries. Since then, this religion has been firmly rooted among the local peoples, mainly the Buryats.

"Aginsky datsan absorbed all the traditions and customs of the Buryat people. Its the continuity of our culture and we are proud of it," says Cidip Lama.

"I am very glad that I came to Siberia. We met wonderful people here and discovered a local culture that surprisingly was very much influenced by Mongolian culture," says blogger Analucia Rodriguez.

In the past, to survive in the harsh taiga it was necessary to be a good hunter. Today, the need for this has disappeared, but archery is still held in high esteem among the peoples of Transbaikalia. The Buryats respectfully refer to the most accurate and skillful shooters as "mergen". Among them, Alexander Dambaev, multiple Russian champion and champion of Europe in compound archery.

Siberia is a land of tradition. But in the 21st century this remote region faces new challenges - the need to develop new technologies. In Chita, together with bloggers, we met with Eugenia Mezenina, the founder of a school for children, "Zablab", where, starting at the age of 6, kids can get acquainted with the basic principles of engineering and robotics.

"Today, the geographical situation of Siberia is no longer a barrier to the development of technical thinking and modern technologies," she insists.

Transbaikalia is a region amazingly rich in natural resources, where the majestic Siberian taiga meets with endless steppes. But not only! Transbaikalia is also a land of mighty rivers, a so- called world watershed, where the basins of three major rivers, the Amur, Lena and Yenisei, take their sources. Their waters begin to flow here and end a few thousand kilometers away, in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

''I think Siberian people are friendly. They are interested in different cultures,'' says blogger Anica Kolic from Croatia.

During our stay in Chita we learned how to cook traditional the Buryat meal Buuz - a favorite dish of steppe nomads, which is prepared here according to a special recipe.

And what could be better than completing our journey with a stage performance of Anton Chekhov's short story "The Swedish Match", who wrote in his notes during his trip through Siberia: "Before you reach the lake Baikal you feel prose. Only when you leave lake Baikal behind you real poetry begins".

Statistical review of mining sector introduced www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ On October 25, the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry called its regular press briefing ‘Transparent and Accountable Mining’. At the press conference, the Mining and Heavy Industry Minister D.Sumiyabazar briefed about first nine months’ statistical review of the sector.

Authorities cut budget on air pollution reduction www.zgm.mn

This week, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Budget held the second discussion of the 2019 Budget bill and cut a total of MNT 271.2 billion expenditures from several sources, such as the allocation to measures on air pollution reduction, education, customs reform and mortgage loan financing. Without questioning the expenditure cut, the Parliament passed the bill on to the final discussion yesterday. Specifically, the allocation to air pollution reduction actions was cut by MNT 80 billion. The proposed amount of the draft was MNT 85 billion; thus, the financing for air pollution reduction action is currently lower than this year’s allocation of MNT 16 billion. Furthermore, another MNT 15 billion was reduced from the initial amount of MNT 115 billion. The budget cut will be spent on 14 projects and programs to be implemented in 2019. On the contrary, the committee did not approve the budget cut of Local Development Fund by MNT 27 billion from MNT 144 billion and increasing child money incentives by MNT 27 billion planned for supporting mortgage program.

Nationwide fuel reserves stand at 33 days of average consumption www.zgm.mn

Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry held its monthly press conference “Transparent and Responsible Mining” yesterday. The ministry reported that the oil products import grew by USD 224.8 million year over year (yoy) in September. In the first nine months of this year, gross industrial production reached MNT 11.2 trillion, a 18.8 percent growth yoy. The growth was driven by 16.9 percent increase of mining sector production, which totalled MNT 8.1 trillion in the same period and accounts for 72.1 percent of gross industrial production. As of October 22, 2018, an total of 3,163 valid mineral exploration and mining licenses are registered throughout the country. Ownership change of mining licenses in September and October of 2018: