In 2016, Mongolian law enforcement officers suspended the operational permits of four companies and imposed fines in excess of MNT 20 million for re-cultivation.

Presently, a considerable amount of snow cover remains on the territory of Mongolia, leading to a difficult spring in 127 soums of 15 aimags.

Therefore, the Cabinet settled that 1110 tons of hay stored in government reserve stations will be issued to herders free of charge in Uvurkhangai and Umnugobi aimags which have recently seen heavy snowfall, and 210 tons of fodder will be handed out with 50 percent discount.

Last February, Parliament ordered the Cabinet to claim 49 percent ownership of Erdenet Plant, thus transferring the full ownership of the plant to Government of Mongolia.

In the scope of the Parliament’s resolution on Erdenet Mining Corporation, the Prime Minister instructed Head of Cabinet Secretariat J.Munkhbat and Head of Agency for Policy Coordination on State Property Ts.Nyam-Osor to form the Board of the corporation with all government officials in compliance with related laws and regulations, and furthermore ensure increased government representation in the administration of the corporation.

Gazprom's last debt report in 2016 slammed local governments in Russia's North Caucasus, reporting that officials in the region owed more than 48 billion rubles ($845 million) — more than 80 percent of all money owned to the company across Russia as a whole.

This year, the company took a less-confrontational approach, declining to name its main debtors despite a rise in outstanding payments. "Overdue payments remain an urgent problem,” the company said in a press release. “In 2016, it grew by about 6 percent, amounting to 161 billion rubles ($2.84 billion) as of January 1, 2017.”

Some have seen the change as part of a bid to appease Chechen leader Kadyrov after he locked horns with the energy company last month.

Kadyrov, whose government forms a vital part of Russia's North Caucasus region, accused Gazprom of using "worn out" equipment. He said that the company's “bad management” forced the Chechen people to live in “19th century conditions."

“People pay for light, for gas, but the money just doesn't get there,” Kadyrov said.

The Chechen government has long waged a campaign to see local energy assets handed over to Kadyrov's safekeeping.

The Kommersant newspaper reported in February that Russian oil giant Rosneft could sell its assets to the Chechen republic in a multi-billion dollar deal.

The Chechen government also took control of property belonging to Chechenneftekhimprom — the state-owned company that controls the republic's oil-refining and petrochemical industry — in December 2015 after repeated requests to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sterling was trading down 0.2 percent against the US dollar at $1.2419 as of 2:00pm GMT. It was up 0.5 percent against the euro.

Since the historic June vote to leave the EU, the British currency has plummeted nearly 20 percent against the US dollar, consistently hitting 30-year lows throughout the period.

"Triggering Article 50 is not a shock like the EU Referendum result. It has been widely signaled by the government that this would happen in March, so it is no great surprise,” said Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser at PwC and former Bank of England policymaker.

"Most likely, we face another two years of uncertainty before a new relationship between the UK and the EU is properly agreed. During this period we will probably see some bouts of financial volatility affecting the value of the pound and reduced business and financial confidence,” Sentance was cited as saying by the Daily Telegraph.

Britain's blue-chip index the FTSE 100, which is dominated by overseas earners, was up 0.1 percent at 7,337.88. The FTSE 250 index, which is seen as a better gauge of UK businesses, was almost flat at 18, 93184.

US stock futures and European stocks were unchanged, shrugging off any potential uncertainty of the major “risk event.”

S&P 500 futures were little changed at 2,358.57; the pan-European STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.1 percent to 377.81. German DAX and the French CAC were also in positive territory.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.2 percent, while the Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.1 percent.

Nine months after Britons voted to leave the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday notified EU Council President Donald Tusk that Britain was quitting the bloc it joined in 1973. She said there was "no turning back" from the decision.

Tusk said it was not a 'happy day' and has warned of 'difficult negotiations' in the months ahead. "We already miss you. Thank you and goodbye," said the EU Council President in his statement to Britain.

Mongolian metallurgical coal explorer and infrastructure company, Aspire Mining Limited (ASX: AKM, the Company or Aspire), has, through its rail subsidiary, Northern Railways LLC (Northern Railways), entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with MTGT LLC, the 100% owner of the Huren Chuulut Iron Ore Project.

Huren Chuulut is a large iron ore deposit located approximately 50 km to the north west of the Khuvsgul capital of Moron and 60 km north of the approved rail alignment for the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway. This Project needs rail to Erdenet to be able to connect to customers in China. Mongolia currently exports iron ore to Chinese customers along the Trans Mongolian Railway.

The MOU covers the sharing of development progress, mutual support in funding activities and the provisional allocation of 5 million tpy of freight capacity as soon as the rail line has been extended to the proposed connection point approximately two thirds along the total 549 km Erdenet to Ovoot Railway. It is expected that the Northern Rail Corridor will see significant demand for its freight capacity of at least 15 million tpy, growing to 30 million tpy in the long term.

Aspire’s Managing Director David Paull said that this MOU demonstrated that the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway will not only benefit Mongolia’s coking coal industry. Once completed, the Northern Rail Corridor, of which the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway is an important part, will see transport of a range of resources, agriculture and manufactured goods”.

Rio will effectively hold a 100% stake in the uranium properties once it pays either $1.5 million by the end of this year; $2 million by Dec. 2018 or $2.25 million by the end of 2019.
The move by the world's second largest miner amends a January agreement and means that once it gives Pistol Bay the remaining sum, Rio will own three key assets, located close to Cameco’s McArthur River mine — the world’s largest producing uranium mine.

Pistol Bay said Rio will effectively hold a 100% stake in the C 4, 5 and 6 uranium properties once it pays either $1.5 million by the end of this year; $2 million by Dec. 2018 or $2.25 million by the end of 2019.

In 2014, the Vancouver-based junior optioned the C5 Property, along with the C4 and C6 claims to Rio Tinto, which already has a 75% interest in the assets. Last year, Rio announced its intention to exercise its option to increase its stake in the assets to 100% by paying Pistol Cdn$5 million by December 2019.

So far, the mining giant has drilled 12 holes for a total of 6,104 m on the C5 Property, and completed gravity and DC resistivity surveys.

Meanwhile, Pistol Bay will focus its efforts in advancing its Dixie zinc-copper-gold properties in Ontario, Canada, which it bought in October last year.

The acquisition, combined with the already optioned Dixie and Dixie 3 Properties, made the Canadian junior the dominant landholder in the Confederation Lake Greenstone Belt, a 7,050 hectares-area in the area southeast of Red Lake.