A century of progress: Mongolia’s road transport sector turns 100 www.iru.org

This century saw a transition of cross-border freight operations from pack animal caravans to modern motor fleets, led by IRU member the National Road Transport Association of Mongolia.
Mongolia has marked a historic milestone, celebrating 100 years of road transport.
The centenary celebrations brought together the entire road transport community: industry leaders, regulators and clients. The President of Mongolia, the State Great Hural (Parliament), the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Road and Transport conveyed official congratulatory messages to delegates and transport sector employees.
IRU General Delegate to Eurasia Vadim Zakharenko said, “Mongolia has already made significant development gains over recent years. Though a landlocked country, it is ideally placed to facilitate trade and transport. Mongolia is fully capable of converting the challenges currently associated with the diversification of global and regional supply chains and logistics flows into opportunities.
“This remarkable milestone reflects a century of progress, regional cooperation and innovation in Mongolia’s transport industry.
“Mongolia is exemplary in how it demonstrates strong support for road transport and values the sector’s crucial role in driving foreign trade, mobility, prosperity, and sustainable development.”
Echoing its legacy as a vital link along the ancient Silk Road and the Tea Horse Road, Mongolia is once again bridging East and West, North and South. It is fast becoming a strategic transit and logistics hub in the region. Last year, road transport operators were responsible for around 65% of domestic freight movements and 88% of exports.
In support of its trade and transit ambitions, Mongolia is actively promoting the global TIR transit system to facilitate seamless cross-border transport with neighbouring countries and beyond. Continued professionalisation of the road transport industry is helping cement the country’s status as a land-linked economy.
Mongolia is also coupling hard infrastructure investments with advanced cross-border facilitation, including the implementation of sophisticated digital customs and transit systems, and the development of express TIR Green Lanes at key border crossings.
Centenary celebrations featured a vibrant programme, including a retro vehicle exhibition, a city parade in Ulaanbaatar’s Sukhbaatar Square, a transport-themed art gallery exhibition, and the release of a commemorative postage stamp and coin. The festivities continued with a national cultural festival showcasing traditional Mongolian sports outside the capital.

Kristie Batten: Asian Battery Metals eyes scale-up of copper-nickel discovery www.themercury.com.au

One of Australia’s top mining journalists, Kristie Batten, writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.
Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9) believes it may have made a significant copper-nickel-platinum group element discovery at its Oval project in Mongolia.
AZ9, which listed on the ASX last year, was previously focused on its more advanced graphite and lithium projects in Mongolia, though Oval was selected to be part of BHP’s Xplor exploration accelerator in 2023.
The company used the US$500,000 of funding provided by the program to drill Oval.
In October 2024, AZ9 reported a hit of 8.8m at 6.08% copper, 3.19% nickel, 1.63 grams per tonne platinum, palladium and gold (E3) and 0.11% cobalt, or 12.57% copper equivalent from 107.2m.
Since then, the company has been focused on expanding the scale of the discovery.
Earlier this month, AZ9 reported an intersection of 8.7m at 2.44% copper, 1.52% nickel, 1.4g/t E3 and 0.06% cobalt from 112.8m, including 2m at 3.72% copper, 3.82% nickel, 1.65g/t E3 and 0.16% cobalt, 130m down-dip of a previous intercept.
The results suggest semi-continuous mineralisation extends over 800m, including North Oval and the Oval gabbroic intrusion.
Planning underway
The recent focus for AZ9 has been electromagnetics to define targets for the next round of drilling.
“Electromagnetic is the go-to tool for this type of mineralisation, so we brought Gap Geophysics, the Australian company, to the field, and they are working currently,” AZ9 managing director Gan-Ochir Zunduisuren told Stockhead.
“Based on that work, we're hoping that we'll have multiple targets to drill on top of whatever we have from our ground EM work.”
On Friday, AZ9 announced that the ground-based fixed loop electromagnetic survey at Oval was halfway through but had already resulted in 29 conductive plates being modelled across four target zones.
Six priority one plates have been identified with strong geophysical responses.
The focus of the remainder of the program is the deeper zones and step-out targets, including MS1, MS2 and Quartz Hill targets.
Zunduisuren said the program to date had delivered the results the company were hoping for.
“I think the next stage of drilling is going to be quite instrumental for us,” he said.
Drilling is set to resume in early August, while the first round of metallurgical test work results will also be released this quarter.
“The strategy for this year is to really show the size and the extent of the mineralisation to get the feeling of how large the potential is, and if we can get that by the end of the year, next year we're going to drill for a resource,” Zunduisuren said.
“We have very limited historic information. This is a brand new area, even in Mongolia, in the southwest part where we are working.
“I don't think there have been any historic magmatic mafic intrusion-related copper and nickel sulphide systems before, so this is brand new in this sense, so we really have to do everything from ground up.
“That's why we certainly believe that there is definitely a potential for camp-scale or clusters of orebodies within a few kilometres or a few tens of kilometres from each other.”
Mongolia still emerging
Despite Mongolia being home to Rio Tinto’s massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine, Zunduisuren said it was still misunderstood as a destination.
“The last round of real investor interest was in the early 2000s,” he said.
“That's when we had a big flow of investment from Australia and Canada, especially in the gold space in Mongolia, and then the copper space.
“Knowing all the moving parts there, I think Mongolia will probably become quite interesting for investors over the next few years.”
Zunduisuren said Mongolia was a mature mining destination with the right regulatory frameworks in place to support the industry.
“Infrastructure wise, it's vastly improved over the last 15 years,” he said.
“Just based on that, it’s way better positioned to attract investment than 15 years ago.”
The ASX’s only other Mongolia-focused copper player, Xanadu Mines, is set to disappear shortly after accepting a $180 million takeover offer.
Xanadu accepted the 8c per share offer – a 57% premium – and the acquirer Bastion Mining moved to compulsory acquisition on Friday.
It will result in one less copper developer on the ASX, a space which is already reasonably thin.
“I think the key for larger institutional investors or corporates, they're definitely looking, of course, and observing how we progressing further,” Zunduisuren said.
“To really make their minds up, there's two things that need to be there. One is a quantity. The other is quantity.
“With our current results, we have shown there's definitely a quality of the product there, but we need to show the quantity and that's the whole strategy of this year's exploration.”
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Asian Battery Metals is a Stockhead advertiser at the time of writing, it did not sponsor this article.

Special investigation team probes military intelligence for North Korea coup collusion www.biz.chosun.com

It has been confirmed that the special investigation team visiting the Korea Military Intelligence Command, which is under suspicion of colluding with North Korea prior to the Dec. 3 martial law, conducted an investigation.
According to the legal community on the 27th, the special investigation team visited the Intelligence Command located in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, on the 25th and conducted field investigations.
The special investigation team is particularly focusing on the relation between the martial law and an incident in which two Intelligence Command agents were captured by Mongolian intelligence while attempting to contact Mongolian officials to infiltrate the North Korean Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, last November.
There are also allegations that former Intelligence Commander Moon Sang-ho asked for support for the declaration of martial law during a business trip to Taiwan just before the announcement of the martial law.
The special investigation team has reportedly investigated senior officers belonging to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as witnesses in connection with the recent drone infiltration operation in Pyongyang.
It has been identified that the special investigation team summoned and investigated Jeong Kwang-ung, former director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Operations Planning Department, and Jeong Sang-jin, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Joint Operations Division, who worked under Lee Seung-o, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's chief of operations, between October and November last year.
If the special investigation team finds that they contacted North Korea with the aim of provoking a North Korean military provocation that would justify the declaration of martial law, it is understood that this could correspond to the criteria of 'collusion with a foreign country' stipulated in foreign exchange crimes.
By  Kim Bo-yeon

TMK starts drilling seventh gas production well in Mongolia www.smh.com.au

TMK Energy has started drilling a seventh production well to increase capacity at its Lucky Fox Pilot Well project in southern Mongolia, using a larger, more powerful TXD200 rig for the first time in the country.
Canadian firm Major Drilling is drilling the LF-07 pilot production well to further reduce the reservoir pressure towards the targeted critical desorption pressure. The additional well should boost the depressurisation sought at the project and bump up total production capacity.
TMK Energy has started drilling a seventh pilot production well at its Lucky Fox coal seam gas project in southern Mongolia, using Major Drilling’s larger TDX200 drill rig to complete the work program.
TMK Energy has started drilling a seventh pilot production well at its Lucky Fox coal seam gas project in southern Mongolia, using Major Drilling’s larger TDX200 drill rig to complete the work program.
A recent independent technical review recommended management utilise the larger TDX200 rig, which also has a more advanced mud system to drive drilling efficiencies.
The new well is being completed on a fixed cost “turnkey” contract with Major Drilling to minimise TMK’s exposure to cost overruns.
The Canadian-based drilling firm has drilled all six previous pilot wells at the project site.
The Lucky Fox project, which is part of TMK’s wider Gurvantes XXXV coal seam gas project, has progressively lifted gas output this year, setting several monthly records for gas volume produced.
The company expects to shortly produce commercial rates of gas across its 60-square-kilometre project in the Nariin Sukhait area of Mongolia’s vast countryside.
TMK Energy chief executive officer Dougal Ferguson said: “We have commenced drilling of our seventh pilot production well in the Lucky Fox Pilot Well project, which is another positive step forward for the project… With all six existing wells on production, including LF-05, which has recently been successfully remediated, we look forward to bringing LF-07 on production and continuing to grow our gas production capacity.”
Management has recently had pressure build-up tests conducted at its LF-01, LF-02 and LF-03 wells, encouragingly demonstrating significant reductions in the reservoir pressure within the past two years and providing an overall improvement in reservoir depressurisation.
The first gas slugs, large high-pressure gas bubbles, which have formed in its Lucky Fox wells LF-04 and LF-06, imply that the pilot well program is heading towards critical desorption pressure.
One of the company’s key objectives this year is to reduce the reservoir pressure below the critical desorption pressure, with gas rates anticipated to increase substantially when the objective is achieved.
That’s why the company has drilled three new production wells this year - LF-07 will be the fourth.
’… we look forward to bringing LF-07 on production and continuing to grow our gas production capacity.”
TMK Energy chief executive officer Dougal Ferguson
The latest well will help meet the company’s licence commitment for further pilot wells this year at its Gurvantes XXXV project and boost the production capacity at the complex.
TMK believes the additional well will help provide the extra pumping capacity needed to quickly reach the critical desorption pressures for the project to deliver an immediate uplift in gas production.
After completing LF-07, the company plans to drill up to five exploration wells in a highly prospective area, about 60km east of Nariin Sukhait.
The 2025 exploration drilling program is considered relatively low-cost but could have a big impact on building the company’s significant 2C contingent resources in the region.
The company’s contingent resource of 1214 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas is Mongolia’s biggest. The project currently contains a 5300BCF prospective resource across a total 8400 square kilometres of ground.
Like many nations, Mongolia is keen to transition away from energy produced from burning coal. Coal seam gas is considered ideal as a “clean transition fuel” because it emits about half the carbon of coal-generated electricity and burns cleaner than other fossil fuels.
TMK believes its Gurvantes XXXV project has the tremendous advantage of proximity to northern China’s gas pipelines and provides the company with the opportunity to become a regionally significant, reliable source of natural gas supply for Mongolia’s domestic market and the region’s energy infrastructure.

Medals seized at 55th IPhO www.ubpost.mn

Mongolian students delivered a remarkable performance at the 55th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), securing a total of two silver and three bronze medals, with every participant from the national team earning a place among the medalists. This marks a significant achievement for Mongolia in one of the world’s most challenging science competitions.
Representing Mongolia, five students showcased their advanced knowledge and problem-solving skills. Among them, G.Batbayar and E.Ichinbat, both students at the high school affiliated with the National University of Mongolia (NUM), earned silver medals for their outstanding results. M.Munkh-Orgil, a student at School No. 1, G.Azjargal from Sant School, and D.Enkhtugs of Absolute Elite School were each awarded bronze medals for their commendable performances.
The team was led by Dr. G.Munkhbayar, an associate professor at the NUM Department of Physics, and faculty member M.Otgonbaatar from the same department. Their preparation was guided by head coach Dr. Ts.Gantumur, a professor at NUM, and Dr. Ya.Munkhsaikhan from the Mongolian National University of Education. Supporting the team as observers were teachers N.Oyunchimeg from School No. 1, along with B.Bulgamaa and G.Buyankhishig from the NUM-affiliated high school.
This year's success underscores the strength of Mongolia’s science education and the commitment of both students and educators to academic excellence on the global stage.

Mongolia's Anthem Closes Their Home Grand Slam www.ijf.org

Through the first two days of competition at the Steppe Arena in Mongolia’s capital city, Japan extended their lead over all other nations but theirs was not the only national team performance of note. Mongolia’s own team equipped themselves admirably on each day, placing judoka on several podia.
The final medal table: Japan at the top and Mongolia second.
Odgerel (-73 kg) and Bold’s (-63 kg) gold medals on day 2 were particularly satisfying, giving the crowd their national anthem, always amazing for a host nation. The crowning glory of their team’s performance though came in the last fight of the day. Gonchigsuren Batkhuyag threw Japan’s Daigo Kagawa to reach the final and once there he continued to compete with focus and momentum.
The last contest of the last category of the last day was won by Batkhuyag in front of his spectators and it meant the last anthem of the day belonged to Mongolia, a fitting end to a great tournament.
Gonchigsuren Batkhuyag (MGL), a champion at home.
The local organisers did a great job welcoming the judo community to Ulaanbaatar, delivering glimpses of the culture and character of this impressive nation. The land of the eternal blue sky has again shown that this is a country of judo and of friendship. Thank you to federation President Mr Khaltma Battulga for his diligence and commitment to the development of judo in Mongolia and beyond.

Mongolia replaces Singapore as FIBA 3x3 Asia host www.insidethegames.biz

The global governing body revealed that the nation will organise the 2027 continental contest, with the event scheduled to take place from 31 March to 4 April in the heart of Ulaanbaatar, a city now firmly on the map as a global 3x3 basketball hub after five years on the city-state's soil.
The announcement follows the electrifying success of the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2025, where over 50,000 fans filled Sukhbaatar Square for an unforgettable celebration of urban basketball. The Mongolian women's national team delivered a stellar performance, reaching the final and capturing national admiration. Their achievement was honoured with a presidential reception, as President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh welcomed the team and awarded them the title of honorary athletes.
"Mongolia continues to prove itself as a world-class home for 3x3 basketball," said FIBA 3x3 Managing Director Alex Sánchez. "The energy of the crowd, the atmosphere, and the standard of play make Ulaanbaatar the perfect host for the FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup 2027. We are thrilled to return, a decade after Mongolia made history by hosting the very first Asia Cup in 2017."
Indeed, the capital of the North Asian nation already hosted the 2017 tournament, where it emerged victorious after defeating New Zealand 19-14. And two years ago, in 2023, despite not having the pleasure of organising the same continental showdown, as Singapore took the honour of lay on five consecutive editions, the Mongolians repeated their success. This time against another Oceanic powerhouse, Australia, the queen of the cup, having been crowned five times, three more than the second, which, interestingly, is Mongolia. Only Qatar in 2013, in the first series held in Doha, has etched his name in history as titleholder apart from the already mentioned.
The upcoming edition will be the latest chapter in Mongolia's track record of staging top-tier 3x3 events. The country has hosted a string of high-profile competitions, including the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup (2019), the FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup (2024), annual stops on the Women's Series, and the FIBA 3x3 World Tour. With each year, the Mongol organisers have further cemented their status as a trusted and passionate organiser of international 3x3 clashes.
Fast-paced, urban, and driven by streetball culture, 3x3 basketball has rapidly grown into the world's number one metropolitan team sport. Played on a half-court with three players per side, the format debuted at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and has since evolved into a professional global circuit for both men and women, complete with national team competitions and international championships.
The 2027 Asia Cup will not only bring together the continent's top 3x3 talent but will also continue the small country of 3.5 million inhabitants' journey as one of the sport's strongest ambassadors in Asia. With its huge fanbase and proven capacity to deliver electric events, Ulaanbaatar is once again poised to shine on the global stage.

AI warning system gifted to Djibouti and Mongolia www.citynewsservice.cn

With extreme weather events on the rise, the China Meteorological Administration launched MAZU, a Joint Action for Early Warnings for All, at the opening ceremony World Artificial Intelligence Conference on Saturday.
Climate change is a critical challenge threatening the humanity and universal early warning systems and climate change adaptation have become urgent imperatives. Named after the Chinese sea goddess known for protecting sailors and coastal communities during storms, the action aims to build an early warning service network while sharing practical experience and technological achievements with global partners, according to the CMA.
"The core strength of MAZU is its ability to connect early warnings to real-world action," said Zeng Qin, director-general of the CMA's Department of International Cooperation. "It's not just about issuing alerts, but empowering people to act on them."
Also at the ceremony, the CMA donated "MAZU-Urban", a multi-hazard early warning intelligent system for urban applications, to Djibouti and Mongolia during the ceremony, marking its first international deployment.
AI warning system gifted to Djibouti and MongoliaTi Gong
A screenshot of the MAZU-Urban early warning system running on a tablet.
Designed to detect risks early and support faster responses, MAZU-Urban, unlike traditional alert systems, is built to serve a wide range of users – from national agencies and port operators to individuals.
It runs across three platforms: desktop, tablet, and mobile.
Government agencies can use the desktop version to track disasters in real time and pull up response plans tailored to local needs.
Industry users, like those in shipping and logistics, can access custom risk reports on the tablet version.
Meanwhile, the public can receive location-specific alerts, evacuation guidance, and emergency contact information straight to their phones.
The system also allows users to ask questions directly and get personalized safety advice, according to CMA.
Since its pilot launch in January, MAZU-Urban has been tested in 35 countries and regions across Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
MAZU-Urban is the first globally shared product developed by the Shanghai Meteorological Service in collaboration with other institutions, including the National Meteorological Center and the Shanghai Academy of AI for Science.
The system is expected to be adopted by more countries as a tool to improve disaster readiness at the city level.
In November 2024, China released a national action plan at COP29 aimed at boosting early warning and climate resilience in developing countries. MAZU-Urban is now part of that broader global effort.

Specialized Housing Finance Bank to Be Established www.montsame.mn

179 Patents Granted in First Half of 2025 www.montsame.mn

In the first half of 2025, 311 applications for patents on inventions and industrial designs were submitted by individuals and legal entities, 45 more than in 2024, according to the National Statistics Office of Mongolia.
A total of 179 patents were granted, including 48 for inventions and 131 for industrial designs. Compared to 2024, patents for inventions decreased by 12, while patents for industrial designs increased by 16.
By international classification, the granted patents include 16 in chemistry and metallurgy, 12 in human needs, 10 in various technological methods, construction, and mining, eight in mechanics, lighting, heating, pumps, and engines, five in physics, and one in electricity and textiles.
Additionally, 2,659 applications for trademark registration were submitted nationwide, of which 1,071 were international applications under the Madrid Agreement designating Mongolia. A total of 2,201 trademarks received protection, 52 more than in 2024, while 637 applications were refused registration.