As of Monday, the central bank's average gold purchase price was 97.09 tugrik (4 U.S. cents) per gram, corresponding to a low rate on London Metal Exchange, according to experts from the Apex bank.

To encourage gold miners and individuals to sell gold to it and commercial banks, the central bank has carried out a number of measures, including a five-month campaign, "National Gold to the Fund of Treasures", started in May.

The bank's gold purchase is expected to grow as the three-month peak season for gold mining starts in August.

Gold miners submitted 20.01 tons to the central bank in 2017, worth over 800 million U.S. dollars.

The annual gold production has remained below 21 tons since 2005, when Mongolia reached its record high at 25 tons.

As the largest municipal engineering project currently in Mongolia, the bridge will greatly improve traffic congestion in the capital.

The 4,312.2-meter interchange designed with a two-way, four-lane road is the main route to Chinggis Khaan International Airport and the development zone from downtown Ulan Bator.

After the opening of the Yarmag overpass, the road from the city to the airport will be increased from two lanes to six lanes, and the transit time can be shortened by more than half.

The total investment of the project is 30.26 million U.S. dollars and it enjoyed Chinese government's preferential aid loan and export buyer's credit. It is constructed by the China Railway 20 Bureau Group under a design-procurement-construction general contract.

The project started construction in April 2017 and the construction of the ramp roads and repair of the old bridge will be completed by the end of 2018.

(Edited by Yang Qi, kateqiyang@xinhua.org)

The IAAC has stated that there are no legal grounds to accuse the agency of burying criminal cases, complaints, or information, and that the state's prosecutors and courts exercise the right to resolve criminal cases in line with the Constitution of Mongolia. The IAAC asked the SSSC to review the situation and hold the MPs who submitted the petition accountable for making false claims.

Security officers keep watch over a tent encampment housing immigrant children just north of the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, June 20, 2018. REUTERS/Mike
The absence of the 463 parents, which U.S. government lawyers said was “under review,” could impede government efforts to reunite separated families by Thursday, the deadline ordered by a federal judge. The filing did not say why the 463 parents had left the country, but government officials previously acknowledged that some parents had been deported without their children.

As of Monday, 879 parents had been reunited with their children, according to the filing.

About 2,500 children were separated from their parents after the Trump administration announced a “zero tolerance” policy in April aimed at discouraging illegal immigration. The policy was ended in June amid an international outcry about the government’s treatment of immigrant children.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ordered last month that the government had to reunite the children with their parents in a case brought by the ACLU.

On Monday, the government also said 917 parents were either not eligible to be reunited or not yet known to be eligible to be reunited with their child. That number includes parents no longer in the country as well as those deemed unsuitable because of criminal convictions or for other reasons.

Immigration advocates have expressed alarm about parents deported without their children, saying it can create problems with the children’s immigration cases.

Clough CEO and Managing Director, Peter Bennett said “We are pleased with the award of these two additional scopes. Clough as part of the GCR Mongolia Joint Venture welcomes the opportunity to continue contributing to the progress of the underground development of the Oyu Tolgoi project”.

Situated in the southern Gobi Desert of Mongolia, approximately 550 kilometres south of the capital, Ulaanbaatar and 80 kilometres north of the Mongolia-China border, Oyu Tolgoi is jointly owned by the Government of Mongolia (34 per cent) and Turquoise Hill Resources (66 per cent,). Since 2010, Rio Tinto has also been the manager of Oyu Tolgoi.

Oyu Tolgoi is one of the most exciting developments in copper and gold mining for several decades. It contains reserves and resources that make it one of the world’s largest known copper and gold deposits. The project is expected to be a significant contributor to Mongolia’s development.

The investigation will target imports of stainless steel billet and hot-rolled stainless steel sheet and plate from the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, which nearly tripled last year. The complaint was filed by Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel, which accounts for 25-35 percent of China’s steel production, and four other mills.

According to the complaint, almost two-thirds of China’s stainless steel imports came from Indonesia last year, up from five percent in 2016 and zero in 2015. That surged to 86 percent in the first quarter, it said.

Imported prices of stainless steel products fell by 23 percent to $1,867 a ton in 2017 from $2,436 a year earlier.

“If we allow these products to continue to enter the Chinese market with low prices and take more market share, sales of China’s domestic products will continue to decrease,” the complaint said.

China, which makes and consumes around half of the world’s stainless steel, imported 703,000 tons in 2017 – up almost 200 percent from a year earlier. Some 98 percent of that came from the regions targeted by the investigation.

Bituminous coal export increased by 0.9 million tons, or by USD 126.9 thousand compared with the previous year. 
Mongolia exported 98.9 percent of bituminous coal to China in the first 6 months of 2018.

Export of copper concentrate raised by 0.8 thousand tons, or by USD 249.3 million. Copper concentrate was entirely exported to China.

Although molybdenium concentrate export decreased by 162.3 tons as of the first half of 2018, total value of the export increased by USD 6.1 million. 86.5 percent of molybdenum concentrate was exported to China, 8.2 percent to the Republic of Korea. Export of fluorite increased by USD 53.4 thousand tons or USD 29.9 million. Fluorite price was an average of USD 240.8 per ton in the first six months of 2017 and it increased to USD 328.1 at the same time of 2018. 48.3 percent of fluorite was exported to Russia and 51.5 percent to China.

B.Batchimeg

Specifically, the forum participant ‘Maral Design’ LLC agreed to export leather bags and purses made in accordance with Japanese standards in cooperation with Kawano Japan. Monos group also signed a contract to sell its products to the Japanese market. The organic cosmetics producer ‘Spirit of Nature’ visited the best organic beauty product shopping center of Japan, making product development research and their products will be analyzed by testing laboratory of Japan.

Director of the Commercial Department of the Mongolian Commodity Exchange LLC D.Oyun-Erdene met with authority of a Japanese investor company, which is interested in privatization of stock exchange and made first steps of cooperation.

The Embassy of Mongolia in Japan will promote Mongolian light industry sector to the Japanese market step by step and plans to hold a meeting with representatives of leather industry in September.

B.Misheel

Mongolian Finance Minister Khurelbaatar Chimed and Yolanda Fernandez Lommen, ADB country director for Mongolia, signed the agreement at a ceremony in Ulan Bator.

The money will be earmarked for the renovation of 311 km of roads along the routes of Ulan Bator-Darkhan and Darkhan-Altanbulag, crucial parts in Mongolia's road corridor sections that link with China and Russia, Khurelbaatar said.

The renovation work will begin later this year, he added.

The 27-year loan will have an interest rate of 0.6 percent and principle payments will be waived during the four years, he said.

"Road development is very important for any country's socio-economic development. Having good and safe roads will create many good opportunities for the economy through trade and tourism," Lommen said.

According to Mongolia's Ministry of Road and Transport Development, the East Asian country with a total land area of 1,564,116 square km has a road network of about 50,000 km, but less than 15 percent has been paved.

Over the past 25 years, the ADB has implemented about 280 projects and programs in Mongolia involving a total of 1.9 billion dollars in fields such as health, social protection, infrastructure and urban planning, the ministry said.

Editor: xuxin