Ivanhoe boss said he’d pay higher taxes in Congo if it benefits locals www.mining.com

Canadian billionaire Robert Friedland, founder and executive chairman of Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN), has joined the debate over the Democratic Republic of Congo’s imminent hike to mining taxes by saying his company would pay higher royalties and taxes, but only if that money benefits locals.

Biotech billionaire buys LA Times for millions www.chinadaily.com.cn

Doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong, a California biotech billionaire and a minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, struck a big deal on Wednesday to buy Los Angeles Times from Chicago-based Tronc Inc.

Soon-Shiong, a 65-year-old doctor turned entrepreneur who was born in South Africa to Chinese parents, is the founder and CEO of NantHealth, based in Culver City, California.

He is a major shareholder of the Times' former parent company, Tronc, which also owns the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Baltimore Sun and the New York Daily News.

As part of the $500 million deal, Soon-Shiong also will get The Times' sister newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and will assume $90 million in pension liabilities. The sale is expected to close in April.

The sale of the Times came after the newspaper has gone through three editors in six months, its publisher placed on unpaid leave during a sexual harassment investigation and an overwhelming vote by staff members to unionize the newsroom.

A former surgeon at the University of California, Los Angeles, Soon-Shiong has been described by Forbes as "America's richest doctor", and one who has said his goal is to cure cancer in his lifetime. Forbes estimates his wealth at $7.8 billion.

He was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to Chinese immigrant parents who fled during the Japanese occupation during World War II. His parents were originally from Guangdong province.

Soon-Shiong received his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand, where, in the late 1970s, he treated South Africans who had been injured during the Soweto riots.

He joined UCLA Medical School in 1983 as an assistant professor in the gastrointestinal surgery division. He later became director of UCLA's pancreas transplant program.

After developing a method for treating diabetes by transplanting insulin-producing cells into a patient's pancreas, Soon-Shiong left UCLA and founded his own medical research firm in 1991.

His wealth came from companies he founded to make blockbuster treatments for breast cancer and diabetes. He sold two of his biotech companies for nearly $9.1 billion.

One drug that his companies developed is Abraxane, which became the foundation of his fortune. It is a redesigned version of a top-selling cancer drug called Taxol.

A story posted on the Times' website on Wednesday about the new owner of the newspaper read: "Who is Patrick Soon-Shiong? An LA billionaire with big ideas - and mixed achievements". And the article said "his work has not been without controversy".

It noted that when Abraxane was approved in 2005, a group of top oncologists questioned whether the expensive drug was "just old wine in a new bottle".

Soon-Shiong now controls a network of health-company startups called Nantworks as he continues his search for a cancer cure.

Soon-Shiong has been described as a basketball fanatic who shoots hoops on a hardwood court inside his multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles. He bought his minority interest in the National Basketball Association Lakers from former NBA star Magic Johnson, the team's president of basketball operations.

His involvement with Tronc started in May 2016 when he bought $70.5 million in stock, which made him the company's second-largest shareholder, and he was named vice-chairman.

He joins other billionaires who have become US newspaper owners. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013. That same year, Red Sox owner John Henry acquired The Boston Globe and, in 2014, Minnesota billionaire and Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor bought the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Mongolian brands expand exposure www.gogo.mn

Alongside its fast growing economy, Mongolian national brands are seeking access to bigger markets. For a country that is heavily dependent on mining, economic diversification has been the main area of focus.

Particularly, the agriculture is considered the second biggest industry in Mongolia following its massive mining resources. Several companies have successfully penetrated international markets utilizing its substantial renewable natural resources. Mongolian Customs General Administration has reported that the food products export doubled last year. Phytogenic products export grew by over USD 12 million, reaching USD 67.4 million, while wooden products export rose by around 50 percent, to USD 633 million.

BEVERAGE

One of the high in demand agricultural businesses is, without a doubt, brewery. APU JSC’s Golden Gobi premium lager beer has succeeded in penetrating Japanese market, finding a place in the 7-Eleven, an international chain of convenience stores.

Named after the largest desert region in Mongolia and Asia, Golden Gobi beer is brewed strictly according to the German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), and has started exporting to Japan since last year. Batsaikhan Purev, CEO of APU JSC’s parent company Shunkhlai LLC, previously said during an interview, “We are done competing with one another in the domestic market. It is time to compete in the world”. Fulfilling its objectives one after another, the company is now one step closer to its visionary goal to become Mongolia’s global brand ambassador.

FOOD

Regardless of the economic downturn in the recent years, certain national producers successfully maintained their growth and improved their competitiveness in the global market. TESO Corporation, one of Mongolia’s major players, has started exporting their products to Kazakhstan and People’s Republic of China (PRC). The company increased its export goods and volume over the last year.

According to the company officials, TESO Corporation has started exporting Golden Milk, Zuv curd drink and Lapsha noodles, quadrupling its export revenue and became Mongolia’s biggest food exporter in 2017. Furthermore, the company has recently raised a total of USD 6.5 million from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development to increase competitiveness and manufacture of its innovative products.

TEXTILES

Aside from food exports, Mongolia excels in cashmere industry. Holding 66 percent of domestic market share, Gobi Corporation opened a branch in Ereen city of PRC and Brussels of Belgium in 2017.

The company currently has three branches and 57 franchisee in 26 cities of 11 countries. As a result, the company’s revenue grew by MNT 9 billion in the first half of 2017. Furthermore, Erdenet Carpet LLC opened a store in Khukh Khot of PRC. With over 20 years of experience, the company opened branches in PRC, Germany, Russian Federation, Japan, the U.S. and France. According to an official of Erdenet Carpet, the company is planning to export their products to Switzerland.

Rare earth elements to be newly discovered www.gogo.mn

The Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren has indicated that Mongolia has several undiscovered deposits of gold, copper, uranium, other rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt and graphite. Experts expect soar in demand for core components of modern technology, such as copper, uranium, lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and other rare earth elements, with growth in the development of renewable energy and production of cutting-edge technology and electric cars. Accordingly, the officials are planning to conduct mineral exploration on over 20 percent of the country, covering a total of 30 million hectares of lands.

Meanwhile... in Mongolia, there is excitement about young opera singers www.csmonitor.com

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 —In Mongolia, there is excitement about young opera singers. In 2017, Mongolian baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar won the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Two years earlier, Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat was a finalist in the same competition, while Mongolian tenor Batjargal Bayarsaikhan won the Grand Prix at the K. Bazarsadaev Fifth International Vocalist Contest in 2015.

Copper steadies, iron ore price climbs on blockbuster Chinese imports www.mining.com

The price of copper regained its footing and iron ore prices continued the climb on Thursday after customs data showed imports of raw materials by China stayed robust in January after a strong 2017.

Rio shareholders complain over failures to disclose Oyu Tolgoi’s risk profile www.gogo.mn

Later on Wednesday, Rio Tinto will release 2017 profit numbers that will fully underscore its emergence from a relatively penurious decade triggered by ill-starred ambition in aluminium and a concert of global financial crisis and a long post-resources boom bust.

According to Bloomberg, the balance sheet is buoyant and getting stronger courtesy of recovered pricing in bulk commodities markets and a strategy that sees Rio Tinto shrinking itself to further greatness through shareholder-enriching sales of unwanted legacy assets. But the road to recovery at Rio has, over recent times, been potholed by a succession of shocks, the best known of which is the self-reported governance issue in Guinea that cost two senior executives their jobs and has inspired formal investigation by a triptych of securities market regulators. Most recently there has been a succession of challenges on the Mongolian fringes of the Rio empire.

Twice in less than a year, problems on the Chinese border have stopped shipments from the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine and on January 16, the Mongolian government (itself a shareholder in the mine) presented the project operator with a USD 155 million tax re-assessment for the years 2013 to 2015. It has been reported since in London that a major Rio shareholder has complained to UK authorities over failures to effectively disclose Oyu Tolgoi's heavy risk profile and just last week a Dutch anti-multinational lobby published a report into the relationship between the miner and Mongolia that alleged tax minimisation and evasion and described Rio's relationship with its sovereign host as abusive.

Now, given a succession of Mongolian calamities that stretches from the material to the spurious, it is remarkable to us that Rio could find itself accused of refusing to talk to the other really big investor in the Canadian- listed entity that owns Oyu Tolgoi, a project that will have soaked up USD 12 billion of development capital by the time it hits peak output sometime after 2025. Rio's place in Oyu Tolgoi is owned through Turquoise Hill. The Canadian listing owns 66 percent of the project and it, in turn, is 50.8 percent owned by Rio Tinto.

That leaves Rio with a 33.5 percent economic ownership of the mine. The arrangements also leave Rio Tinto as the operator of the mine and the management fees generated by that are shared equally by Rio and Turquoise Hill. The balance of Turquoise Hill is owned by long and short investors and the biggest of those minority shareholders is a San Francisco-based investment fund called SailingStone Capital Partners. It owns 12.16 percent of Turquoise Hill, a position that is presently worth USD 716 million. On Thursday last week, SailingStone went public with simmering frustration over the way Rio expresses control over Turquoise Hill and its mine.

For all that it is openly content with the progress at Oyu Tolgoi, Sailing- Stone is concerned that the management teams of the Canadian company and its mine are universally "bound to Rio Tinto". In a letter to the board of Turquoise Hill, SailingStone complained that management has "no job security, no ability to hire and, based on their tenure at Rio, has likely far more leverage to Rio Tinto's stock price than Turquoise Hill's". SailingStone noted that, until recently, long-term executive and management compensation was paid in Rio Tinto paper rather than that of the Canadian listing. That changed last year as a result of previous

SailingStone lobbying. SailingStone, which is, as we noted, content with outcomes at Oyu Tolgoi but not so much with the way they are being achieved. "We are pleased with the progress that has been made over the last few years in terms of the restart of underground development work, the execution of the project finance facility and the remarkable free cash flow stream generated by the open pit operations through the recent downturn in commodity prices," SailingStone said in opening its correspondence, "It's clear that all stakeholders, including the government and citizens of Mongolia, are benefiting from the activity and investments being made at site. However, we remain concerned about corporate governance, given the potential for conflicts of interest which exist between Rio Tinto, your majority shareholder and the operator of Oyu Tolgoi, and the minority shareholders of Turquoise Hill.

Specifically, we believe that basic corporate governance standards require an independent and informed management team and board of directors. These requirements are particularly acute given the unique relationship between TRQ and Rio, and yet today neither of these conditions is being met." It is worth noting here that the Turquoise Hill board already boasts a majority of independents, that decisions are taken on a majority basis and that all matters involving Rio are dealt with by the independents alone.

SailingStone's concern is that the direct relationship between Rio and Oyu Tolgoi makes it very difficult for the Turquoise Hill board to be fully informed of project progress and options. It is even more concerned that project management owes affiliation to Rio over Turqouise Hill's board. Now, these are patently very complex issues and the commitment by the board of Turquoise Hill to engage with SailingStone is necessary and sensible. The SailingStone letter complained that Rio had refused any and all invitation to discuss concerns over the nature of the global miner's relationship with Turquoise Hill and the risk that its approach oppresses minority owners.

SailingStone singled out Rio's recent decision to open its own office in Mongolia as "explicit acknowledgement of Rio's attitude towards minority shareholders". "They simply don't exist," SailingStone complained. With that, the other largest investor in Turquoise Hill complained that Rio had rejected "numerous requests for meetings, including offering to fly to their London headquarters at Rio's convenience". The fact that Rio is about to launch brand advertising across three of its most important constituencies (Australia, Canada and Mongolia) stands testimony to its acute appreciation of the importance of reputation to its social licence.

Matthew Stevens, Tugsbilig.B

Germany's Daimler issues 'full apology' to China over Dalai Lama www.bbc.com

Daimler has issued a second emphatic apology to China after its subsidiary, Mercedes Benz, quoted the Dalai Lama in an Instagram post on Monday.

IMF sees Mongolian economy as positive in 2018, 2019 www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees Mongolia's economic outlook "positive" in 2018 and 2019 after its working group visited the Asian country to evaluate the economic bail-out program.

Selling seabuckthorn products on Russian market touched www.montsame.mn

Uvs /MONTSAME/ Representatives of Tyva Republic, the Russian Federation headed by the First Vice-Chairman of the Tyva Government A.V.Brokert worked in Uvs province.