The production of the industrial sector in Mongolia reached MNT 15.6 trillion in seven months, increasing by MNT 5.4 trillion or 53.2 percent compared to last year.

This was due to the increase of the mining production by MNT 4.3 trillion or 64.8 percent and the processing industry by MNT 825.7 billion or 32percent, according to the National Statistics Office.

The preliminary estimates indicate that sales of the products of the industrial sector in the first seven months of 2023 reached MNT 25.1 trillion, increasing by 75.5 percent. This was due to the increase in the sales of the mining and extraction industry by MNT 9.3 trillion or 92.5 percent and the sales of the processing industry by 36.8 percent .

Growth of the sales of the mining and extraction industries by 92.5 percent compared to the previous year was mainly due to the increase of sales of the coal mining sector by 3.8 times, metal ore mining by MNT 624.5 billion, and oil mining by MNT 555.5 billion.

An operation has been carried out in Lake Khuvsgul to locate and remove sunken vehicles since this June at the initiative of President of Mongolia. The operation aims to protect the local ecological system by cleaning the bottom of the lake from hazardous waste and reducing its pollution.

During his visit, a 17.8-ton tank car of the Zil-130 model was removed from the lake, which sank in 1981 at a depth of 74 meters.

The vehicles that have been recovered since this June include a Zil-130 fuel truck with a trailer that sank in 1995 at a depth of 128 meters, about 2.5 kilometers from the Maraan Bay of Lake Khuvsgul, and a 6-ton fuel trail at a depth of 54 meters, about 1.4 kilometers from the shore of Lake Khuvsgul.

In total, 34.7 tons of fuel and lubricants were removed from vehicles, which is a significant contribution to reducing pollution of Khuvsgul Lake and the environment.

Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is home to fewer than 1,500 Catholics, has elicited curiosity among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

This will be the pope’s 43rd trip abroad since his election on March 13, 2013: He has visited 12 countries in the Americas, 11 in Asia and 10 in Africa.

What do these visits tell us about this pope’s mission and focus?

As a scholar of Roman Catholicism, I have studied Catholicism’s appeal for immigrants and refugees, and I argue that the pontiff’s official travels since 2013 are part of his decadelong effort to rebrand the Roman Catholic Church as a religious institution that centers the poor.

Prioritizing the poor

While previous popes have included the poor in their speeches, what has distinguished this pope is that he has focused on the Global South and prioritized immigrants, refugees and the less privileged, from Bolivia to Myanmar to Mongolia.

At his July 2013 visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa to commemorate migrants who had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, Francis gave a blistering critique of the world’s failure to care for the poor: “In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business!”

Three years later, the pope flew 12 Syrian Muslim refugees from a Greek refugee camp to Rome. Francis is the first pope to relocate refugees and to work with groups like The Community of St. Egidio charity in Rome that have successfully resettled thousands of refugees.

During my own interviews with Central American Catholic immigrants and refugees in central and eastern Iowa between 2013-2020 for my book, “Meatpacking America,” I heard from women and men who fled violence and poverty in their home nations that they look up to this pope “because he cares about us,” as Fernando said. And Josefina told me back in 2017 that this pope is “the real deal” in terms of supporting immigrants and the poor.

Francis and liberation theology

His predecessors – Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict – specifically condemned liberation theology, a philosophy rooted in Catholic social teachings that calls for a preferential option for the poor and an embrace of Marxist ideology.

According to Austen Ivereigh prior to his becoming pope, Francis — then Jorge Mario Bergoglio – condemned liberation theology as well. He would say “that they were for the people but never with them,” wrote Ivereigh, in his biography of Pope Francis.

Since his election as pope, however, Francis has undertaken what I call “people-focused” liberationism. In one of his first official announcements in 2013, “Evangelii Gaudium,” or “The Joy of the Gospel,” the pope wrote about the essential inclusion of the poor in society, arguing that “without the preferential option for the poor, the proclamation of the Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today’s society of mass communications.”

In other words, the Gospel’s message that all Christians proclaim doesn’t mean a whole lot if the poor are not central to the goal of personal as well as collective salvation.

Journeying to Mongolia

How does the pope’s upcoming visit to Mongolia factor into this decade-spanning trajectory of his people-focused liberation?

Christianity has been present in Mongolia since the seventh century. Nestorianism, an Eastern branch of Christianity named after the Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, who lived from 386 C.E. to 451 C.E., coexisted alongside an even older religious practice, shamanism, which emphasized the natural world and dates to the third century. Nestorians believe that Christ had two natures – one human and one divine.

While Mary was seen as important within Nestorian theology as Christ’s mother, she is not seen as divine. This is similar to Roman Catholic theology where Mary is deemed special because she is Christ’s mother and worthy of veneration.

According to historian Robert Merrihew Adams, the missionary activity of Nestorian Christians in central Asia from the seventh to the 13th centuries was “the most impressive Christian enterprise” of the Middle Ages because of its rapid spread and influence.

Adams argues that Nestorianism’s spread was in part because of its belief that Christ was a two-natured individual – one divine and one human. These two natures in one body meshed well with preexisting shamanic beliefs, as shamanism sees individuals as able to harness the supernatural.

In addition to this branch of Eastern Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism came to Mongolia in the 13th century, as did Islam. Today, Buddhism is the dominant religion of Mongolia, while Islam and Christianity remain very small percentages at 3% and 2.5%.

Pope Francis has made it clear throughout his tenure that interfaith dialogue is an essential remedy to division. During his visit he will preside over an interfaith gathering and the opening of a Catholic charity house.

A strategic visit

The past decade has brought rapid urbanization and growth in major cities such as the capital of Ulaanbaatar, along with high rates of unemployment and Covid-era economic downturn.

And yet, according to the World Bank, the economic forecast for Mongolia remains “promising” because of its rich natural resources, such as gold, copper, coal and other minerals.

However, extraction of Mongolia’s resources is occurring at a rapid pace – so much so that the country, according to the Harvard International Review, has been called “Minegolia.” The United States has made significant investment in Mongolia’s mining industry, and China is a major importer of Mongolian coal. Two rail lines connecting Mongolia to China were installed in January 2022 and a third is being built.

In the past, Francis has made strong comments against corruption and environmental degradation, and it would not be surprising if he addressed the challenges of the mining industry during his trip. During his trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023, he critiqued the Global North that contributed to “the poison of greed” that has “smeared its diamonds with blood.” In 2018, the pope spent a few hours in Madre de Dios, an area in the Peruvian Amazon, where mining has led to large-scale environmental degradation.

The pope’s visit will be bold given the challenges before Mongolia and its geographic location between Russia and China. A peace delegation on behalf of Pope Francis for the war in Ukraine, led by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, that visted Russia this summer is likely to head to China in the coming months.

As Italian Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, a missionary in Mongolia for two decades, has emphasized, Pope Francis’s visit to this country with a tiny minority of Catholics will “manifest the attention that the (pope) has for every individual, every person who embarks in this journey of faith.”

This piece has been updated to correct the depiction of the Roman Catholic Church’s view on Mary’s divinity.

BY Kristy Nabhan-Warren, University of Iowa.

According to the preliminary estimates, the production of the industrial sector in the first seven months of 2023 reached MNT 15.6 trillion, increasing by MNT 5.4 trillion (53.2 percent) compared to the same period of the last year.

This was due to the increase of the mining production by MNT 4.3 trillion (64.8 percent) and the processing industry by MNT 825.7 billion (32 percent) respectively, reports the National Statistics Office (NSO).

In the first seven months of 2023, by preliminary estimates the total production of the mining and extraction industry reached MNT 11 trillion, making increase of MNT 4.3 trillion (64.8 percent) compared to the same period of the previous year. Growth of hard coal and lignite production by MNT 2.9 trillion (3.4 times), gross ores production by MNT 699 billion (13.5 percent), and oil production by MNT 597.3 billion (5.1 times) mostly affected this increase.

In the mining and extraction industry, the physical volume of copper concentrate, lignite, silver concentrate, hard coal, coal concentrate, oil, and fluoride concentrate increased from 26.1 percent to 9.8 times, while fluoride, zinc concentrate, unrefined gold, and iron ore production decreased by 7.1-48.2 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

In the manufacturing sector, the physical volume of production of the main products such as cathode copper, absolute alcohol, flour, liquid milk, cement, metal structure, and livestock meat increased from 0.8 percent to 2.7 times, whilst production of the main products such as cigarettes, water, soft drinks, juice, combed cashmere, vodka, coal briquettes, lime, and cashmere knitwear decreased by 1.8-41.5 percent.

The preliminary estimates indicate that sales of the products of the industrial sector in the first seven months of 2023 reached MNT 25.1 trillion, increasing by MNT 10.8 trillion (75.5 percent) compared to the same period of the previous year. This was due to the increase in the sales of the mining and extraction industry by MNT 9.3 trillion (92.5 percent) and the sales of the processing industry by MNT 1.2 trillion (36.8 percent).

Growth of the sales of the mining and extraction industries by MNT 9.3 trillion MNT (92.5 percent) compared to the same period of the previous year was mainly due to the increase of sales of the coal mining sector by MNT 8 trillion (3.8 times), metal ore mining by MNT 624.5 billion (8.9 percent), and oil mining by MNT 555.5 billion (4.4 times) respectively.

According to the NSO, MNT 17.1 trillion of the MNT 17.7 trillion sales on the foreign market in the first seven months are from the mining and extraction sector. Coal accounted for 58.5 percent of foreign sales of mining products, metal ore for 36.2 percent, oil extraction for 4.2 percent, and other mineral extraction for 1.1 percent.

The Mongol Derby, the world’s longest and toughest horse race, has been thundering across Mongolia’s steppe for ten days this month. In one of the closest ever races, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Massachusetts, Matthew Perella, took second place.

Based on the ancient horse messenger system used by Genghis Khan — in a country where the horse is king — at 1,000 kilometers, the Derby is the toughest test on the planet for equestrian endurance riders. Whilst horses are changed roughly every 35km, at checkpoints strung out throughout the country, riders must endure being in the saddle for up to 200km a day and face the challenges of riding over 28 different semi-wild horses. The riders must face the animals’ varying temperaments and bucking abilities, and the inevitable falls and mishaps that happen along the way while navigating through challenging terrain, including giant sand dunes and freezing mountain passes.

The thirteenth edition of the Mongol Derby kicked off on August 2 and looked set to be a firecracker from the off, with 42 riders from 11 different nations competing for the prestigious win.

Day one saw Spanish rider Xavier Ferrer riding at the front of the pack for most of the day, but he wasn’t in the lead as evening fell. Having had a reversal of fortune when he abruptly parted ways with his horse en route to HS3 (horse station 3), Xavier had to hitch a ride back to HS2. This left German rider Judith Jaeckle at the front of the race as night fell.

Over the next eight days, Judith was never far from the front of the race and showed true horsemanship skills by never having to redraw a horse (new to the race this year, every horse station was a ‘lotto’, meaning riders had to ride the horse they were given, rather than picking a horse themselves, testing their horsemanship all the more. You could, however, choose to ‘redraw’ a maximum of three times in the race if you didn’t like the look of the horse you were first given).

The real battle of the race would come on its final stretch, as Swedish rider Linda Hermann — who had been in a game of cat and mouse with Judith over the previous days — finally managed to overtake the German rider to take the lead. . . but only just, and it certainly wasn’t a two-horse race. Hot on the ladies’ tails was American Marine Matthew Perrella, whose navigation prowess and luck of the draw with some seriously fast racehorses, now put him in contention for the Mongol Derby win.

As it came down to the last two horse stations, Linda found herself deep in a bog. Luckily she and her horse were fine, but it was a very tense moment and a vet team was dispatched before her horse was cleared to continue. This slowed the Swedish rider down, and allowed Judith and Matt to both gain ground, riding on very fast horses. It was down to the wire, but Linda was able to make it to the final horse station, before the finish line. She cleared the vet check (these checks happen at every checkpoint to ensure all horses are OK and haven’t been ridden too hard), and remounted on a seriously fit racehorse while still in the lead. The win seemed hers, as long as her horse passed the final vet check at the finish line.

But Judith and Matt had other ideas and reached the final horse station almost within eyesight of Linda. They both changed horses swiftly. With Matt on one of the most feral and fastest horses on the course, he crossed the finish line shortly after Linda, with Judith a mere few minutes behind him.

With bated breath, everyone waited for Linda’s vet check to clear (a penalty would lead to her losing the win), but finally the news came that her horse’s heart rate was below the 56 beats per minute requirement and the win was hers. Matt and Judith cleared their vet checks shortly after crossing, with Matt claiming second place and Judith third.

Not only was the race an incredible success for all those involved, but it also helped raise a huge amount of money for charity. The Mongol Derby to date has raised over $1 million for charities, with each rider asked to raise funds for good causes. Among them was the race’s official charity partner, Steppe and Hoof, whose objective is to support the herders and their animals while working to save the unique traditions that are part of the Mongolian nomadic lifestyle as it comes under fire from climate change and urbanization.

Matthew Perella was also raising money for The Righteous Life Rescue Ranch, which he founded to help retired horses and death row dogs, as well as to provide equine therapy to veterans with PTSD, those with special needs, and anyone seeking inner peace and overall improved health.

At a meeting several days ago, officials from the U.S. and Mongolia discussed devising innovative approaches to ensure the smooth entry of essential minerals from the landlocked Mongolian nation into the global market, namely for materials for rare earth magnets. Following his meeting with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, Mongolian Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene told Reuters that Mongolia planned to intensify its collaborative efforts with the U.S. in the realm of mining. The country would specifically target rare earths, rare earth magnets, and other minerals integral to advanced technologies.

The two parties also delved into strategies for advancing the objectives laid out in a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum stemmed from a June collaboration between the U.S. State Department and Mongolia’s Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry. This could potentially make way for a new source of rare earths for the U.S. to produce rare earth magnets, which could add strength to rare earth prices (see MetalMiner’s price forecasting track record).

United States Hopes to Support Mongolia Despite China

Experts feel that the visit has significant implications for the ongoing geopolitical rivalry between China and the U.S. Presently, China occupies a commanding position in the rare earth market. Indeed, the country not only boasts substantial natural reserves, but also significant expertise in the refinement and extraction of these vital elements.

According to a U.S. State Department spokesman quoted by Reuters, the discussions focused on specific areas where the U.S. could assist Mongolia in comprehending its resource potential. They also touched on methods for extraction and avenues for production. The spokesperson added that the U.S. would support Mongolia in finding inventive solutions that empowered it to exercise greater control over mining, exploration, extraction, and production of critical minerals and rare earth elements.

This led to numerous inquiries into how the U.S. might facilitate the unimpeded exportation of such resources from Mongolia. This is prudent, given the country’s challenging geopolitical position. The spokesperson acknowledged the complexity and highlighted ongoing dialogue regarding strategies to make resources like rare earth magnets accessible to the market. These sourcing strategies are also highlighted in The 5 Biggest Cost-Saving Sourcing Tactics.

China and U.S. Race for Rare Earth Magnets and Copper

Despite commencing patent applications later than the U.S. and Japan, China now commands over 80% of all patents related to rare earths. In the first half of 2023, China undertook considerable ores and metals, including from the U.S. It later exported refined rare earths, primarily in the form of materials for rare earth magnets. China’s control over the supply chain coupled with its proficiency in refining and separating rare earths continues to give it a strategic upper hand.

China’s neighbor Mongolia also possesses vast reserves of copper. The reddish-orange metal is essential for numerous advanced technological uses, including certain defense apparatus. Meanwhile, the U.S., has an urgent need for both rare earths and copper for advanced technological applications, including defense systems. For this reason, the country has been trying to diversify its sources beyond its primary global competitor, China.

By Sohrab Darabshaw

The economy of Mongolia is expected to grow by 5.5% in the second quarter of this year and by 5.4% in the first quarter of 2024, according to a survey conducted by the Bank of Mongolia among external experts.

According to the National Statistical Committee, Mongolia's gross domestic product increased by 6.4% to 13.6 trillion tugriks in 2015 prices as of the first half of the year. The mining sector accounted for 3.9% of the total growth, the service sector for 3.5%, and the agricultural sector for 1.7%.

The agricultural sector, which saw growth in 2022, contracted by 9.9% in the first half of 2023 due to drought. However, the value added of the industry and the construction sector, which had been declining steadily in previous years, reached 1.4 trillion tugriks, up 2.4% year-over-year, according to the National Statistical Committee.

As part of the “Years to Visit Mongolia”, “Nas Summit-2023”, which was successfully organized in more than 10 countries, was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this year on August 19, with the aim of promoting Mongolia abroad. The conference was attended by the best content creators and investors from around the world, as well as from Mongolia, and shared their experiences and methods.

13 influencers from 9 countries with millions of followers on their social media pages arrived in Mongolia for 7 days, and they traveled and made content about Mongolia.

The number of followers of their social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, twitter).

1. Nuseir Yassin / CEO of Nas company/- 63 million,

2. Dhruv Rathee /Explainers that inspire/ - 21,4 million,

3. Alyne Tamir /Internet’s Favorite Travel Vlogger/ - 3,8 million,

4. Daniela Rita /From an Audiovisual Communicator to Travel Creator/ - 4 million

5. Wil Dasovich /TV Personality/ - 7 million,

6. Alan Wurman / Alan’s Theory Creator/ - 1,3 million,

7. Larissa D’SA /Best Indian Travel Vlogger/ - 1,9 million,

8. MONT / A journalist Content Creator/ - 4 million,

9. MONT / A Journalist Turned content Creator/ - 4 million,

10. Julius Dein /World’s biggest Magician/ - 72 million,

11. Jordan Matter / Most successful “Old” YouTuber in the World/ - 28 million,

12. Mark Weins / Food and Travel Creator/ -20 million,

13. Max Haase / Travel Creator/ 10 million.

Erenhot Port in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region has logged over 2,000 China-Europe freight train trips so far this year, the local railway authorities said on Friday.

Since the port launched its China-Europe freight train service in 2013, it has handled a total of more than 13,000 China-Europe freight train trips.

From the beginning of this year, the land port has offered a “green channel” for China-Europe freight trains, further improving operational efficiency.

Erenhot Port is the largest land port between China and Mongolia. Currently, 69 China-Europe freight train routes run through this port, linking China with more than 60 regions in over 10 countries, including Germany and Poland.

Source: Xinhua

China’s hydrogen sector is expected to see strong growth as local governments announce ambitious plans to produce quantities of the gas that far exceed the national target, analysts said.

However, slow growth in infrastructure and consumption demand remain major challenges that could put the sector at risk of overcapacity.

China’s provincial and municipal governments have jumped on the hydrogen bandwagon, rolling out plans to develop the industry after Beijing released its first ever national hydrogen strategy last March.

The country aims to have at least 50,000 hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEVs) on the road and produce 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of “green hydrogen” – hydrogen produced by splitting water through the electrolysis process – annually by 2025, according to the plan.

However, the national targets were eclipsed by the plans rolled out by the local governments. For example, just the combined green hydrogen production targets set by the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and Gansu amount to 740,000 tonnes per year by 2025. Meanwhile, 13 provinces and cities aim to have 111,000 HFCEVs on the road by 2025, with more targets expected to be announced.

“On the green hydrogen production side, major investments from state-owned enterprises are easing a significant overbuild in terms of production – an endemic issue in the energy transition where getting supply and demand more or less in balance has proven difficult and is an investment risk,” said a Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (Citi GPS) report released this month.

China, already the world’s largest hydrogen producer, accounted for around 60 per cent of global electrolyser shipments in 2022 and is estimated to dominate at least half of the global market in 2023, according to BloombergNEF.

However, green hydrogen demand remains low globally, with a projected demand of 10 gigawatts (GW) in 2025 as compared to at least 71GW of electrolyser manufacturing capacity to be online by the end of 2024, BloombergNEF data showed.

“The wide range of potential shipments attests to China’s significant overcapacity to ship electrolysers,” the Citi GPS report said. “Overcapacity is not just endemic to electrolyser manufacturing: consumption lags supply in hydrogen as a transport fuel and indeed in a wide range of green energy areas.”

For example, HFCEV sales were low at 3,367 units in 2022, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. To meet the 50,000 target, average annual sales from 2023 to 2025 will need to be roughly 12,500, some four times higher than the 2022 sales.

China’s northern coal-producing provinces, such as Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Jilin, and Gansu are playing a significant role in the hydrogen sector’s rapid growth, driven by the unfavourable long-term outlook for the coal industry under China’s 2060 net-zero emissions goals and Chinese president Xi Jinping’s announcement two years ago calling for the reduction in coal use from 2026, said Cosimo Ries, an energy analyst at think tank Trivium China.

“Meanwhile, these northern provinces also boast some of the most abundant renewable energy resources in the country, which local policymakers hope to leverage to turn them into the most cost-competitive regions for hydrogen production,” said Ries.

Ries argued it’s unlikely that China’s hydrogen sector will struggle with overcapacity as the national hydrogen targets appear highly conservative and there are ample opportunities for industries such as steel, cement and aviation to use green hydrogen to replace the fossil fuel-derived grey hydrogen because the former only accounts for a fraction of China’s annual production of the gas.

Grey hydrogen is created from natural gas, without capturing the greenhouse gases given off in the process.

As is the case globally, China’s hydrogen market remains at a nascent stage, with big challenges around the pace of expected cost declines and supply chain integration.

“The business model of hydrogen energy hasn’t been fully established yet. At present, it still relies heavily on government policies to drive the development of the industry,” said Kevin Kang, chief economist at KPMG China.

The country’s sluggish economy is also a factor slowing down the sector’s growth, he added.

The hydrogen fuel cells and HFCEV industries are probably a decade behind the lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle industries when it comes to cost, economies of scale, and technological maturity, according to Ries. Other more promising sectors such as steel and cement face similar problems over costs and inadequate infrastructure for hydrogen transport and storage, he said.

“These problems will be resolved gradually, but are tricky issues and will take time,” said Ries. “Policy mechanisms like government subsidies or a more expansive emission trading system with higher carbon prices will no doubt help, though we’re not sure what Beijing has planned.”

BY Yujie Xue

Yujie Xue covers China technology for the Post in Shenzhen. Before joining the SCMP in 2020, she was a technology features reporter at Shanghai-based news outlet Sixth Tone. She studied Mass Communication at Boston University.