In 2018, an agreement was signed for the establishment of the Museum of Tonyukuk the Wise as part of the Development Cooperation Agreement between the governments of Mongolia and the Republic of Turkiye.

In accordance with the agreement, on November 2, a ground-breaking ceremony was held for the museum which will be built with a grant of USD 6.2 million from the government of Turkiye. The ceremony was attended by Minister of Culture of Mongolia Ch. Nomin, Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkiye Mehmet Ersoy, President of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) Serkan Kayalar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkiye to Mongolia Zafer Ates and other corresponding officials.

It is planned to build the museum on an area of 20 hectares within the 65.58 km2 protection zone of the memorial complex of Tonyukuk the Wise in the territory of Nalaikh District, Ulaanbaatar. A general plan for the construction of the museum, its accompanying buildings, a commercial service area, and a recreation area was developed.

As part of the cooperation agreement between the former Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and TIKA, a project has been launched in 1994 to preserve, protect and restore the heritages of Turkic Khaganate in the territory of Mongolia.

Minister of Culture Ch. Nomin said, “In order to preserve and maintain cultural heritages, promote history and culture, and pass them on to future generations, the Mongolian government is carrying out a number of significant construction projects. The Ministry of Culture is developing a strategy to boost the economic impact of these programs. It should be mentioned that the establishment of the Museum of Tonyukuk the Wise in the Nalaikh district of the capital city is directly tied to the policy goals of protecting and preserving cultural heritage and promoting economic growth. In addition, the importance of the project is further enhanced by the fact that it creates a good experience for the development of other valuable cultural heritage preserved in every corner of Mongolia according to this standard.

Born of the Ashina noble family from which most powerful aristocrats and noblemen of the Turkic Khaganate originated, Tonyukuk the Wise lived between the years of 646 to 732. After serving as an advisor for Qapaghan Khan and Kutulug Khan, he continued to work under Bilge Khan until his death at the age of 86. The Turkic Khaganate (or the Gokturk Khaganate) was a ruling Empire in Central Asia in 552-745.

On November 1, the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held virtually and chaired by Premier of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang.

Prime Minister of Mongolia L. Oyun-Erdene participated in the meeting and delivered remarks. Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene congratulated the Chinese Premier for holding the meeting successfully despite the challenging circumstances of the pandemic and the economic challenges brought on by international tensions. Then he expressed condolences over the tragic accident in the western Indian state of Gujarat, which resulted in the death of more than 130 people.

It was stated that Mongolia has been working to actively participate in the SCO's cooperation ever since it became the organization's first observer country in 2004.

Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene said that he is pleased that the meeting coincided with the day when the 745-km highway connecting Asia and Europe, an important component of the "Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor", was put into operation.

According to him, Mongolia has been able to make use of its geographic advantage to create a transit corridor linking Asia and Europe and to support regional integration and trade. It was also announced by the Prime Minister that the preliminary feasibility study of the Altanbulag-Zamyn-Uud highway construction project connecting the three countries is ready and put forth his request to meet and discuss this matter with the authorities of China and Russia in the near future.

In the first ten years of its long-term development plan, Vision-2050, the Mongolian government is implementing a New Revival Policy under six sets of objectives. The objectives of the region's countries and the development strategies of China and Russia, which are neighbors, were taken into consideration when developing the policy. This policy is a thorough plan for partnerships that benefit the parties, built on the active involvement of foreign investors and businesses as well as regional nations, he added.

Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene emphasized that the government of Mongolia is devoting the construction of border checkpoint infrastructure and transportation logistics its full attention. He also invited the heads of government of the member states who participated in the meeting to work together on mutually beneficial economic projects within the framework of Mongolia’s New Revival Policy.

Saudi Arabia is seeking investment from Australian miners to support its $170-billion plan to build a mining industry and diversify its oil-dependent economy this decade.

The kingdom says it’s sitting on top of $1.3 trillion worth of untapped mineral deposits including copper, zinc, phosphates and gold. Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef is in Australia this week to drum up investment interest.

Australian miners should “come, explore, do mining — the same as they are doing here”, he said in an interview on Tuesday in Sydney.

Saudi Arabia is pursuing a Vision 2030 project to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and embrace industries from mining to renewable energy and manufacturing. Of the $170 billion sought for mining, it envisages about 60% will come from private companies and the rest from state-owned entities.

Al-Khorayef said he had met with a number of smaller Austrlalian miners already, and hoped to meet bigger players such BHP Group Ltd and Rio Tinto Plc at a major mining conference in Sydney this week.

Saudi investors are “interested in this sector”, he said, but the country lacks domestic mining expertise and “you need to have partners who understand the sector quite well, and know how to utilize the resources.”

Junior miners

Saudi Arabia’s small mining industry is dominated by state miner Saudi Arabian Mining Co., commonly known as Maaden. The country should emulate Australia’s model of junior, private-sector miners that develop riskier and early-stage mines, the minister said.

“We feel it’s quite a good model for us to copy in Saudi, because we have a lot of young entrepreneurs who I’m sure many of them would be interested in the sector,” he said.

Battery metals such as lithium and nickel are already a focus for Maaden and Saudi Arabia, but the scale of resources is still unclear. Maaden said last year it would spend a “huge amount of money” in the coming two decades to explore for battery metals.

(By James Fernyhough)

Mongolia has increased its railway transport fares by 20-50% from November 1 after Ulaanbaatar Railway's proposals were accepted by the State Board of Trade and Industry, Mongolia's Medee reported.

Transportation tariffs on coal exports have increased by 20%, copper and zinc concentrates exports 20%, iron ore exports 15% and fluorspar exports 15% starting from November 1.

Besides, local and national passenger transportation fares have also increased by 50%, according to Medee.

Mongolia is also about to raise energy prices of enterprises as the sector is in a difficult situation, although the specific schedule has yet to be finalized.

The working capital needed by coal mines reaches 109 billion MNT, according to energy minister Choijilsuren Battogtokh.

The household electricity and heating price will not increase, but for enterprises, power prices within 500 TWh will increase 14% and prices of power exceeded 500 TWh will increase by 38%, according to Gogo Mongolia.

(Writing by Emma Yang Editing by Tammy Yang)

Mongolia's forex reserves rose to 2.8 billion U.S. dollars at the end of October, up 3.7 percent from a month earlier, the Bank of Mongolia said Wednesday.

However, the figure marks a 36 percent decrease from the beginning of this year, the central bank said in a statement.

The Asian country must make sovereign bond payments in the coming two years, Byadran Lkhagvasuren, governor of the central bank, has said, stressing the necessity to increase the forex reserves.

In 2023 alone, Mongolia will have to repay sovereign debts worth 1.3 billion dollars, said Lkhagvasuren.

The country's forex reserves stood at 4.9 billion dollars at the end of April 2021, hitting an all-time high, according to the central bank.

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) announced Wednesday it has entered into agreements with certain funds and entities related to Pentwater Capital Management and SailingStone Capital Partners in relation to the special meeting of shareholders to vote on the acquisition of 49% of the outstanding shares of Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX: TRQ).

Rio has proposed a $3.3 billion deal for Turquoise Hill shares it does not already own, seeking a 66% stake in Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, one of the world’s largest known copper and gold deposits.

Originally set for November 1, the meeting has been postponed until November 8. Rio said the security holders have agreed to withhold their votes at the meeting and exercise their dissent rights in respect of the arrangement.

Rio has agreed to increase the dissent condition under the agreement from 12.5% to 17.5% of Turquoise Hill shares issued and outstanding.

The parties have also agreed that the dissent proceedings with shareholders and certain other claims shall be conducted by arbitration, and the shareholders shall be paid C$34.40 of the consideration following the completion of the arrangement, with the remaining consideration payable following the final determination of the arbitration.

Rio Tinto reconfirmed that the proposal of C$43 per Turquoise Hill share is best and final.