DUBLIN - Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc. in Dublin, Ireland, announced that Mongolia-based Spotter has now deployed over 12,000 animal-tracking collars based on SmartOne C and SPOT Trace.

These satellite IoT devices are being used in Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to track and safeguard horses, including high-value competitive racehorses. The technology is seeing rapid growth, up from 1,000 Spotter devices deployed in January 2020, now up to 240,000 horses now protected. Horses are part of daily life in Central Asia and horseracing is a major sport in Mongolia. However, with the sparsely populated nation’s 4.5 million horses roaming fence-free, keeping tabs on the animals is a major challenge for owners.

Spotter's far-reaching technology solutions that can monitor the location of millions of horses. These animals are semi-wild, and free to range across vast expanses to graze.

Spotter has developed a new hybrid IoT device that can be connected to SmartOne C. It can be fitted on specific at-risk horses and, as a result, the owner can know if the individual animal has roamed away from the herd. The system can track the breakaway horse up to a 1km radius, giving the herdsperson the opportunity to locate and retrieve the animal before it has travelled too far.

Spotter has deployed 9,000 SmartOne C-fitted collars and 3,000 built on SPOT Trace. Requirements differ among customers. The horses typically roam in herds of around 30, with one lead stallion keeping the animals together and providing protection. As a result, the group can be effectively monitored with just one collar.

Spotter has created a new hybrid collar which leverages Globalstar satellite communications along with radio transmissions to create a low-cost solution that makes it possible for owners to track individual horses as well as a herd.

The introduction of analytics to help discover optimum grazing areas is in Spotter’s technology and applications roadmap. Furthermore, Spotter believes that the requirements for its technology solution will expand far beyond horse-tracking. Spotter’s collars are already being used to track and monitor livestock, including cattle, sheep and goats, but are additionally helping conservationists to protect wildlife.

Mongolia’s capital city Ulaanbaatar and all its 21 Provinces have joined the world’s leading global collaboration to strengthen urban resilience. Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) welcomed its newest members at an official ceremony at Mongolia’s Parliament House. The event re-emphasized the ongoing need for scaled up disaster resilience action in an era of escalating climate risk.

Mongolia’s Head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Major General Ariunbuyan.G, said it was important to strengthen the capacity of local governments and maintain a strong coordinated national-local approach to address such a challenging riskscape. ‘The frequency of disasters in Mongolia is increasing, especially due to climate change, putting urban areas at greater risk,’

Major General Ariunbuyan.G said. ‘Joining MCR2030 will contribute to ensuring Mongolia's sustainable development, reduce risks, protect lives, and provide opportunities to live in a healthy and safe environment,’ Advisor of the Deputy Prime Minister, Ms. Oyunchimeg.P, highlighted Mongolia’s pride in being recognized for its efforts beyond its borders.

‘As risks and vulnerability of cities continue to increase globally, there is still a lot of work that we can do together. I am confident that the Mongolian cities participating in MCR2030 will closely coordinate disaster risk reduction efforts to create safe, resilient, and sustainable cities,’ she said.

Mr. Baatarhuu, Head of the Administration Department of Ulaanbaatar Capital City said it was important for Ulaanbaatar to provide a lead for other provinces. ‘The city of Ulaanbaatar commits to work hard to strengthen resilience, and to learn from international partners participating in the MCR2030,’ he said. The UN Resident Coordinator for Mongolia, Mr. Tapan Mishra, echoed how MCR2030 provides a big opportunity for Mongolian provinces to further strengthen their resilience and expand partnerships. ‘I am glad to see that Mongolia is now part of MCR2030. Disaster risk reduction is an important part of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Mongolia. The UN will continue to support local governments in Mongolia in their resilience efforts,’ Mr Mishra said.

NEMA, in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), is organizing an MCR2030 technical workshop to support the provincial governments to increase their disaster resilience action. The Head of UNDRR’s Global Education and Training Institute and Office for Northeast Asia,

Mr Sanjaya Bhatia, praised Mongolia’s continued commitment to and leadership on disaster resilience. ‘Mongolia was a champion of the original MCR Campaign where it offered a model of coordinated national-local approach to risk reduction. This inspired many other countries and deserves recognition,’ Mr Bhatia said. ‘Joining MCR2030 is an important step for the local governments of Mongolia. I have no doubt that MCR2030 will benefit Mongolian provinces and at the same time the experience of these local governments will also benefit the MCR2030 global network.’

UNDRR has been a long-standing partner in Mongolia. In recent years, it has provided significant support to Ulaanbaatar and the provinces to use UNDRR’s Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities to identify strengths and gaps to inform their subsequent plans. As a result, the capital and all provinces achieved Sendai Framework global target (e) by 2020 with the development (and subsequent implementation) of local disaster risk reduction strategies. Mongolia has a strong track record in leading the disaster resilience agenda both nationally and internationally. Over the past two decades, the national government, through NEMA, has consistently prioritized disaster risk reduction as integral to its domestic development agenda. In 2018, the country hosted the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

MCR2030 is a United Nations-led global network that has mobilized 1,442 local governments, representing almost 449 million people, committed to strengthening their disaster and climate resilience. The partnership has also convened national governments, municipality associations, service providers, as well as 12 core partners that are a ‘who’s who’ of international organizations active on urban resilience.

The Mongolian team that competed in the World Amateur Chess Championship 2022 added a new page to Mongolian chess history by grabbing 3 Gold medals.

The World Amateur Chess Championship 2022 was successfully held in Mellieha, Malta on October 20-30, 2022, and the winners were awarded yesterday.

At this tournament, Margadgua Erdenebayar, Tuguldur Soninbayar, and Sodbilegt Naranbold won gold medals and World Cup in W U1700, U 1700, and U 2000 sections respectively.

In the Women U1700, Margadgua Erdenebayar from Mongolia, won the title with a round to spare, scoring 8.5 points out of 9. Margadgua said she started playing chess by chance while in the hospital. But now she is determined to tie her life with chess: "This year, I want to become a FIDE master, and in the future, my goal is to become a grandmaster."

Also, Tugulder Soninbayar, who won first place in U1700, took gold with 7.5 points out of 9.

On other hand, Sodbilegt Naranbold was the sole leader in the Open U2000 from start to finish and the 13-year-old Mongolian achieved great success with a perfect 9 out of 9.

In addition, B. Otgonbayar, who competed in the U 1700 category, was leading the competition until the last moment, but lost in the last game and took 4th place.

Mongolians have been very successful in this tournament every year. GM S. Bilguun became the first Mongolian winner in World Amateur Chess Championship in 2011, WFM B. Anu won the gold medal in 2011, WFM B. Yanjinlham in 2013, FM G. Monkhbayar in 2014, FM E. Khulan in 2016 (champion in 2 sections), and WIM B. Bayarmaa in 2017 and 2018, WFM B. Khaliun and FM B. Amarsaikhan in 2019, accordingly.

The President of Mongolia, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, received the representatives of "ICT Group" LLC.

The President complimented them for creating conditions for citizens to receive health and education services virtually and introducing electronic payment services, national data centers, and national geographic and language translation systems based on cloud systems.

He also expressed that he will support the company which is aiming to improve the quality of life of Mongolians by using technological advances in every respect.

"ICT Group" LLC, which unites 53 enterprises, has introduced about 380 products and services in the health, education, and financial sectors, which gained 2.8 million customers and users.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company G. Lkhamsuren expressed his willingness to expand the cooperation in the "One Billion Trees," "Food Supply and Security," and "Healthy Mongolian" national movements with information technology solutions.

"Fibo Cloud" LLC signed an agreement with "Transtelecom" JSC, one of the largest telecommunication operators in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Executive Director of "Fibo Global" LLC, P. Purevbazar, presented that this is the first contract for the Mongolian technology company to supply its digital products to Central Asia.

The "ICT Group" LLC representative expressed that it is possible to become a digital nation in 2027 by working together as national enterprises.

Eighty-five percent of end users in the healthcare sector, 20 percent in the education sector, and 50 percent of the financial sector other than banks have been using the systems developed by the company in the last 10 years.

Electric vehicles giant Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) considered taking a stake in Glencore (LON: GLEN) and held talks with the miner and commodities trader, the Financial Times reported.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, FT said Tesla discussed buying 10% to 20% of Glencore last year and continued negotiations in March this year, when the Swiss firm’s chief executive Gary Nagle visited the carmaker’s factory in Fremont, California.

Talks concluded without an agreement due to Tesla’s concerns about Glencore’s coal mining business and its impact on the environment, the two sources told FT.

Tesla has spent the past year signing pacts with several producers of battery metals in an effort to secure future supply of key ingredients for its electric batteries, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The two companies already have a deal in place, which guarantees Tesla cobalt supply for its plants in China and Germany.

Glencore is the world’s top producer of cobalt through its mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia and Canada.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised in 2020 “giant contracts” to companies able to produce nickel in an “environmentally sensitive way” amid concerns of an imminent deficit.

Since Musk’s pledge to miners, his company has inked nickel supply deals with the world’s largest miner, BHP, (ASX: BHP) in Australia and Vale (NYSE: VALE), the world’s second largest nickel miner. It has also reached agreements with Prony Resources in New Caledonia and with Talon Metals (TSX: TLO) for its Tamarack nickel project in Minnesota.

Nickel helps cram more energy into cheaper and smaller battery packs, allowing EVs to charge faster and travel farther between plug-ins.

Lithium worries

Musk tweeted in April about his concerns over lithium costs. “Tesla might actually have to get into the mining and refining directly at scale, unless costs improve,” he said.

The new owner of Twitter followed up by saying that Tesla was open to buying a mining company if producing its own supply of electric vehicle (EV) metals would speed up worldwide adoption of clean energy technologies.

Since then, the company has been advancing plans to build its own lithium hydroxide refinery in Texas, as Musk considers refining ore a “licence to print money”.

Tesla did not reply to MINING.COM’s request for comment. Glencore declined referring to the topic.