LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - It took Oxford University’s brightest minds decades of work to give them the expertise to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. In the end, it was a momentary error - and a dose of good fortune - that carried them over the line.

The Oxford vaccinologists were exhilarated on Monday when drugmaker AstraZeneca, with whom they developed the shot, announced that it could be around 90% effective, citing data from late-stage trials.

“It can only happen if extraordinary support is provided,” Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University’s Jenner Institute which developed the shot, told Reuters. “We had pretty well the whole institute in Oxford working on this vaccine.”

While skill and hard work drove development, AstraZeneca said it was a minor mistake that made the team realise how they could significantly boost the shot’s success rate, to as much as 90% from around 60%: by administering a half dose, followed by a full dose a month later.

“The reason we had the half dose is serendipity,” Mene Pangalos, head of AstraZeneca’s non-oncology research and development, told Reuters.

The plan was for trial participants in Britain to receive two full doses, but researchers were perplexed when they noticed that side effects, such as fatigue, headaches or arm aches were milder than expected, Pangalos said.

“So we went back and checked ... and we found out that they had underpredicted the dose of the vaccine by half.”

He said the team nonetheless decided to press ahead with that half dose group, and to administer the second, full dose booster shot at the scheduled time.

The results showed the vaccine was 90% effective among this group, while a larger group who had received two full doses produced an efficacy read-out of 62%, leading to an overall efficacy of 70% across both dosing patterns, Pangalos said.

“That, in essence, is how we stumbled upon doing half dose-full dose (group),” he told Reuters. “Yes, it was a mistake.”

The vaccine uses a harmless adenovirus to deliver genetic material that tricks the human body to produce proteins known as antigens that are normally found on the coronavirus surface, helping the immune system develop an arsenal against infection.

Pangalos said more analysis was needed to explain why an initial lower dose bolstered protection. One possible explanation was that lower antigen levels to begin with triggered an overall better immune system build-up, he added.

1991 TO TODAY

Even though good fortune played its part, the development of what Oxford scientists hailed as “a vaccine for the world” was built upon 30 years of testing and tweaking of methods.

The adenovirus “viral vector” platform that their candidate uses has been around since 1991, said Hill of the university’s Jenner Institute.

He had been working with Sarah Gilbert, another vaccinologist, to fine-tune the technology. This has involved using a chimpanzee cold virus as the vector to deliver the instructions, in trials with diseases such as flu, MERS and Ebola over the last decade. The hope was that it would one day prove its potential against one or more such deadly diseases.

They turned their attention to the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in January. Oxford Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson said she was told of Gilbert’s work and that it looked promising for the new coronavirus, but was operating on a shoestring.

The university then offered a million pounds to underwrite the research until more funding came on board, Richardson told reporters, which duly arrived when the government and AstraZeneca became involved in May.

The unprecedented urgency and resources given to Oxford to prove the platform’s effectiveness against COVID-19 meant it leap-frogged the vaccines against those other pathogens, which are still in early-stage trials.

Gilbert said the experience with MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which is caused by a different type of coronavirus, was especially instructive.

“It showed us that we could make a vaccine with this technology that would induce good immune responses against the coronavirus spike protein,” she told reporters.

“We’d also been thinking about how to go really quickly when a new pathogen arises and we need to make a new vaccine. We’d done some work preparing for that.”

2020: ‘A VERY LONG YEAR’

Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group and a professor who has spent two decades running clinical trials, said this experience gave him confidence in the prospects for Oxford’s new vaccine, known initially as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

“I think we knew right from the beginning of the year that if we could go through this development, we may well have something which can make a difference,” Pollard told Reuters.

But there was an issue. Limited interest in Oxford’s vaccines for other pathogens before this year meant they didn’t have the funding to prove the platform’s efficacy: until now.

“You either need a massive amount of money, or a pandemic to bring in that resource, and it’s tremendous that we’ve had this opportunity to validate that chimpanzee adenovirus technology for this coronavirus,” Hill said.

“If you’d said to me a year ago that in 2020 anybody would make a vaccine for a global pandemic - and in months rather than years - I would have thought that was hugely challenging.”

Pollard said that while speed of the COVID-19 vaccine’s development was in some ways extraordinary, 2020 had “been a very long year” since the team started work on the vaccine in January.

That culminated this past weekend, Pollard said, in having “an enormous mountain to climb to pull all of the information together” to be able to issue Monday’s data release showing the vaccine can be up to 90% effective.

“The last few weeks have been pretty exhausting. The feeling is absolutely one of extreme fatigue and tiredness at this point,” he told Reuters, speaking before he briefed the office of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the findings.

“If the results have not met those regulatory requirements, they would have told us just to carry on with the trial. So it was a great relief.”

Reporting and writing by Kate Kelland and Alistair Smout in London, and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Pravin Char

A MASSIVE flying ancient beast the size of a small plane has been found in the Gobi Desert.

The dinosaur had enormous 36ft long wings and would be one of the largest winged reptiles ever known to live on Earth.

The giant lived 70 million years ago in a warm climate that was desert-like but not quite as dry as today.

At this time there were lots of dinos roaming around - the offspring of which would have been dinner for this large beast.

It was part of a mysterious branch of dinos known as the azhdarchids and was likely one of the largest that ever lived, researchers claim in the study published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

It joins another large dinosaur, from the same family called the Hatzegopteryx, which was unearthed earlier this year.

Discovered in Romania, the terrifying bird had a massive neck and jaws that could swallow other horse-sized dinosaurs whole.

The region of the Gobi desert where the latest fossil was discovered is called the Nemegt Formation.

It is home to numerous incredible Jurassic Park-style finds dating back to the Cretacious period.

But this is the first time the fossil patch has yielded a pterosaur - proving how international the species was.

The team worked this new finds gigantic size from predicting the chunks of neck fossil they have to go by, they predicted its footprint would be the same as the Hatzegopteryx which had a wing span of up to 39 feet.

Recently, the French company Poma outlined its plans for a new cable car route to connect Bayankhoshuu, one of UB’s ger districts, with the city centre.

The French Directorate General of the Treasury (DG Trésor) is providing finance for the cable car line. A financial protocol was signed in May 2020 followed by commercial agreements in June 2020.

The six-kilometre line will have three stations and include 122 cable cars.

“Our cable transport solution is a perfect fit with the principle of reducing environmental impact and substantially enhancing urban mobility in Ulaanbaatar and its outskirts, in particular the connection of the new district of Bayankhoshuu with the city centre,” Fabien Felli, Commercial Director and Member of the Executive Board at POMA, said.

“This is a project that makes sense for the development of this capital city and its suburbs, in the same way as has previously been achieved in Latin America and with our projects currently underway in France, in Toulouse and soon in Grenoble.”

Poma will supply the vehicles, towers and equipment, whilst rail consultancy Egis will be responsible for the design and construction of the stations and their foundations, as well as low and high voltage power.

Cable car transport was originally pioneered in the hilly Colombian city of Medellin in 2004 and is seen as a viable public transport solution in cities with significant physical obstacles, which in UB include the Tuul river and the railway line.

According to the World Bank, capital costs for new cable car lines sit around $10-25 million per kilometre (based on Latin American systems). Typical operating capacity sits around 1000-2000 people per hour per direction, which is classed as ‘moderate’ travel demand.

However, the World Bank cautions that cable cars should be developed on a ‘case-by-case’ basis and should not be seen as a magic bullet for public transport solutions.

“The possibility of developing a new cable car should be considered on a case-by-case basis as part of a thorough and comprehensive planning process,” the Bank says. “These systems, of course, are no alternative to high-capacity mass transit.

“With an average distance of 800 meters between stations, cable cars may not serve as many people as bus services, and require users to walk longer distances to and from the terminals.”

Nonetheless, the Bank argues that cable cars remain an ‘exciting and welcome addition to the toolbox of urban transport planners’, with cities around the world - including Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, and London - using them to connect communities.

So whilst cable cars may not be the only solution to improving public transport in UB, the new route has the potential to offer significantly increased access to employment and opportunities for the capital's more isolated residents.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. At today’s pressing briefing by the Ministry of Health on the COVID-19 situation, Head of Surveillance Department of the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) A.Ambaselmaa provided updates on the latest test results.

A total of 3,011 PCR tests have been done nationwide since November 22, and as a result, 11 new positive coronavirus cases have been detected in Ulaanbaatar.

The new cases are all close contacts of COVID-19 patients, who had been confirmed to have the virus on November 21 and 22, and are taken in isolation under surveillance.

The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country have reached 640, and 53 percent or 340 patients of them have already recovered. 293 people are being treated at the NCCD.

As 11 AM, November 23, the total number of COVID-19 domestic transmission cases in Mongolia have reached 204, 51 cases in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, 20 in Darkhan-Uul aimag, each 17 in Dornogobi and Orkhon aimags and 98 in Selenge aimag.

Canada’s Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A TECK.B) (NYSE: TECK) announced that it has increased its steelmaking coal sales to China for Q4 2020 in response to increased demand.

Teck said sales have been at higher pricing levels compared to markets outside China. Estimated total fourth-quarter sales remain within the company’s existing guidance of 5.8-6.2 million tonnes, with approximately 20% of these sales now to Chinese customers.

Pricing in China for Teck’s steelmaking coal started to increase around the middle of the current quarter when a large portion of overall sales was already concluded, the company said. Additional spot sales to China were concluded gradually as the price was rising and achieved an average premium in excess of $35 per tonne above Australian FOB spot pricing at the time each sale was concluded.

Teck, the world’s second-largest seaborne coking coal miner, is seeing stronger-than-expected met coal demand in China, after authorities reportedly warned buyers to avoid Australian coal.

In October, China suspended purchases of Australian coal as Beijing continued to tightly control imports of the fuel amid soured political relations with Canberra, after the capital called for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

China reportedly told coal traders and users to stop imports from Australia with immediate effect in a move that would choke a major trade channel for both countries, a major escalation of political tensions between the pair.

Teck said its contract sales to Chinese customers are also priced on the basis of CFR China price assessments. The most recent three cargos, it said, were sold at prices between $160/tonne and $165/tonne CFR China.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) made decisions at its irregular meeting held today to set the policy rate at 6 percent, reducing it by 2 percentage point. Moreover the committee lowered the reserve requirement ratio of tugrug by 2.5 percentage point to 6 percent, restructure and defer the consumer loans until July 1, 2021, and introduce long-term refinancing tools to support SMEs and non-mining exports.

“This decision is aimed at mitigating the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the banking and financial sector, as well as the financial burden on citizens, businesses and financial institutions. It will also support financial and economic stability without compromising inflation targets in the medium term. Annual inflation reached 2.4 percent nationwide in October 2020 and 2.6 percent in Ulaanbaatar.

Inflation will increase slightly in the coming months due to the base period, but will remain low due to economic activity and will not exceed the target level. The economy contracted by 9.7 percent in the first half of 2020 due to the pandemic, but it slowed to -3.1 percent in the third quarter, improving the balance of payments forecast.

The quarantine measures imposed in November to curb the spread of the pandemic have had a positive effect on public health and but it expected to slow economic recovery in the short term.

Real economic, financial and commodity market indicators show that the global economic activity is recovering in the second half of 2020.

Although vaccine testing is nearing completion, the second and third waves of the pandemic hit many countries, and economic uncertainty remains high.

Monetary and macroeconomic prudential measures to mitigate the pandemic will increase financing for SMEs and non-mining exports, reduce the cost of financing, mitigate the domestic economic downturn, and support the stability of the banking sector.

The Bank of Mongolia will continue to take appropriate measures to prevent credit disruptions in the banking system while supporting the liquidity of banks, households and enterprises” reports B.Lhagvasuren, the Governor of the Bank of Mongolia.

Director of the Monetary Policy Department B.Bayardavaa said, “The Bank of Mongolia set the policy rate at 6.4 percent in 2007. This is the first time that the policy rate has been reduced to 6 percent since then.

The policy rate has been reduced by a total of 5 percentage points this year, as it is expected that the reduction will not lower the ability to restore economic stability and reduce inflation in the medium term. The reason of decreasing the policy rate in conjunction with the prudent macroeconomic policies is that the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee becomes an impetus to ease the financial situation.

The reduction of banks' required reserves ratio by 2.5 points is releasing MNT 400 billion in the banking system. This is a measure to support the bank's highly liquid assets, enabling the banks to further create relatively flexible conditions for its borrowers and renew their contracts.

Deferred loan repayments will ease the burden on the solvency of individuals and businesses, which in turn supports the economy through monetary policy."

NAGOYA--Oyunchimeg Khongorzul racked her brain when she read a newspaper article online that the National University of Mongolia, her alma mater, had been built on the backs of Japanese detainees.

Khongorzul, who commonly goes by the name Zora, didn’t recall having heard about the internment of Japanese in Mongolia after World War II when she studied international relations at her university.

Nor did she remember having learned about the topic during history classes.

Zora, 39, a reporter for Chukyo TV Broadcasting Co., has directed a documentary on the subject, which won the runner-up prize for a TV program in the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association’s JBA Awards in November.

“Bayartai: A farewell 72 years after internment in Mongolia” is based on the research and interviews she conducted over eight years.

Her research started in 2011 when she was in the first year of her career at the Nagoya-based broadcaster. Zora, who studied at a university in Tokyo, joined the company following a stint as a part-timer.

Zora learned there were about 12,000 Japanese internees in Mongolia, of whom 1,600 or so lost their lives under forced labor.

Behind the prize-winning TV program is a wealth of personal histories, both her own and a former Japanese internee in Mongolia.

Starting in 2013, Zora began attending annual meetings of the Mongol Kai (Mongolia society), which organizes former Japanese internees in Mongolia. She got acquainted with Masao Tomohiro, a 95-year-old resident of Kobe, in the process.

Tomohiro was in Manchukuo, in today’s northeastern China, when World War II ended. He was taken by Soviet troops to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia.

Tomohiro had both his legs amputated during the internment in Mongolia, where he suffered frostbite in the intense cold. He now wears prosthetic legs.

After he was repatriated, he returned to Mongolia on more than 40 occasions despite his physical disability. He visited the graves of his comrades-in-arms left in Mongolia, collected their remains and supported an orphanage founded by a former army surgeon.

Tomohiro contacted Zora in spring 2019 to tell her that he was going on his “last” trip to console the spirits of the dead. He had not been back to Mongolia since 2011, partly because of his advanced age.

Zora accompanied him on that consolatory trip in June last year.

Tomohiro visited the former site of a hospital where he had his legs amputated. He was also reunited with a woman who had grown up in the orphanage.

He visited a memorial dedicated to his dead comrades in Mongolia to bid his final farewell.

“Bayartai,” the Mongolian for goodbye, literary means, “(Go) with joy,” and has the connotation of hopes for a happy reunion.

“Tomohiro once left Mongolia as an internee, but he returned to the country on many occasions to see his (dead) comrades-in-arms, and he has also maintained ties with Mongolians by supporting the orphanage,” Zora said in explaining why she chose “Bayartai” as the program’s title.

After the program was aired in December last year, Zora revisited Mongolia to incorporate viewpoints from the Mongolian side.

She appeared on Mongolian TV and called on people to provide information. She got an opportunity to interview, a 96-year-old former Mongolian soldier who was a prison guard for Japanese internees.

Zora recomposed her program by including the results of her research trip and had it aired under the same title in May, which won the JBA runner-up prize.

“I am happy about the award, which will provide an opportunity for people to learn about the internment of Japanese in Mongolia,” she said.

There was a scene that was not included in the TV program but nevertheless meant a lot to Zora.

That is when she said “thank you” to Tomohiro outside the National University of Mongolia while she was accompanying him on his last consolatory trip.

“I wanted to convey my gratitude to him on behalf of my compatriots after I learned about the hardships of those who perished through my research and interviews,” Zora said.

“I want this program to be aired on a Mongolian TV station,” she added. “I want an inscription to be engraved one day on a pillar at my alma mater to say, ‘This university was built by Japanese.’ I want everybody to know that as a fact.”

On November 20, today, Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia's largest copper and gold mining company, released the latest edition of its performance scorecard, highlighting key performance metrics for the third quarter of 2020, and provided an update on underground development, and its continued prevention measures on COVID-19.

Oyu Tolgoi was awarded the Copper Mark, the copper industry’s new responsible production recognition programme. The Copper Mark requires the company to demonstrate that it meets over 30 criteria for responsible environmental, social and governance operating practices.

Oyu Tolgoi chief executive officer, Armando Torres, said, “We are pleased to be among the first in the copper industry to be awarded the Copper Mark, demonstrating our commitment to responsible mining and transparency. We achieved this together with all our stakeholders and communities in Mongolia. We will continue upholding the highest social and environmental standards and draw on the advice of environmental experts and the communities in which we operate.”

The company is continuing its close monitoring of the COVID-19 situation with its Business Resilience Team and is taking preventive measures throughout the operations. The preventive protocols are in full compliance with the guidance and decrees issued by the Government of Mongolia, State Emergency Committee, and the local authorities in Umnugovi province and Khanbogd soum, reports Oyu Tolgoi.

Q3 2020 Operational Update

• Open pit operations continued uninterrupted.

• Achieved an All Injury Frequency Rate (AIFR) of 0.17 per 200,000 people/hours worked.

• Maintained excellence in water saving, using 0.35 cubic metres of raw water per tonne of ore processed compared to its target of 0.55, and achieving an average water-recycling rate of 87.5 per cent, compared to its target of 80 per cent, at the end of the third quarter.

• Ninety-four per cent of Oyu Tolgoi’s workforce were Mongolian citizens.

• Paid US$201 million in the form of taxes, fees and other payments to the Government of Mongolia as of the end of the third quarter of 2020. Since 2010, Oyu Tolgoi has paid US$2.8 billion in taxes, fees and other payments including VAT to Mongolian suppliers.

• Collaborated with 703 suppliers by the end of the third quarter of 2020, of which 468 are national businesses, which accounts for 73 per cent of the total operations procurement spend.

Q3 2020 Production Update

• Mined copper production from the open pit was 28 per cent higher than the same quarter of 2019 and steady quarter-on-quarter reflective of the move to higher grade areas of the open pit in 2020, primarily due to accelerated mine development and production phasing. Access to higher copper and gold grades is expected to continue for the remainder of 2020, which was originally planned for the first half of 2021.

• Q3 2020 mill throughput was slightly higher than Q3 2019 due to slightly higher mill availability and an increased milling rate associated with softer ore.

• Copper and gold production guidance for 2020 remains within the ranges of 140,000 to 170,000 tonnes and 155,000 to 180,000 ounces respectively, with gold production trending towards the higher end of the range.

Underground Development Update

• Work on the project has continued to progress despite COVID-19 controls and ongoing international travel restrictions issued by the Government of Mongolia.

• Care and maintenance activities continue at Shafts 3 and 4; some commissioning activities have advanced in preparation for shaft sinking, including rope installation on Shaft 4. Further progress will require the remobilisation of international shaft sinking specialists and preparation is underway to mobilise some of these contractors before the end of 2020 (subject to change due to the current COVID-19 restrictions in the country).

• Overall, underground lateral development has now reached 45,858 equivalent metres, or around 90 per cent of the required development to support firing of the first drawbell.

• All surface infrastructure required for sustainable production is complete and the team is focused on progressing the critical underground Material Handling System 1 (MHS1) to the stage needed ahead of the first drawbell firing. The balance of project infrastructure to be delivered post completion of MHS1 is not needed for sustainable production, however, it is needed to support the production ramp-up profile.

• Preliminary indications from the definitive estimate process are that first sustainable production is trending towards the earlier months of the October 2022 to June 2023 range. The estimated development capital cost remains within the range of US$6.6 to US$7.1 billion. This assessment has now been updated to include known cost and schedule impacts from COVID-19 and assumes an easing of travel restrictions and COVID-19 related controls from the time of reporting. This remains subject to ongoing review as part of finalising the definitive estimate of cost and schedule for Panel 0, expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.

• On 3 July, Oyu Tolgoi announced the completion of an updated feasibility study (OTFS20) prepared in accordance with Mongolian regulations and standards. Registration of the Updated Reserve and Resource Report (RR19) has been delayed beyond the 150-day period of review since its submission in February 2020. Registration of RR19 is required before formal consideration and acceptance of the OTFS20. In accordance with the 2009 Investment Agreement and Mongolian regulation, the Government of Mongolia is required to consider each of the RR19 and OTFS20 within 150 days from submission. The OTFS20 also forms the basis for the uplift in the overall underground project cost that is required to be approved prior to the under-cut decision (decision to initiate caving) in 2021.

Other Updates

• Oyu Tolgoi has been working to progress power negotiations with the Government of Mongolia as required under the terms of the Power Source Framework Agreement Amendment signed in June 2020:

• An extension of power import arrangements with China’s Inner Mongolian Power Company is required by 1 March 2021 in order to ensure sufficient certainty on future supply of power before the under-cut decision is taken.

• A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for power supply to Oyu Tolgoi from a State Owned Power Plant at Tavan Tolgoi that will be funded by the Government of Mongolia is required to be executed by 31 March 2021.

• Following the agreement to purchase some power from the Mongolian national grid, on 3 September 2020, Oyu Tolgoi LLC and the Southern Region Electricity Distribution Network executed a PPA to supply power to the Oyu Tolgoi camps.

Background

Oyu Tolgoi LLC is a strategic partnership between the Government of Mongolia, Turquoise Hill Resources and Rio Tinto. Located in the South Gobi, Oyu Tolgoi commenced shipment of product to customers in July 2013. Oyu Tolgoi is managed by Rio Tinto, which is investing global expertise and cutting-edge technology to help develop Mongolia’s mining industry and ensure Oyu Tolgoi is one of the world’s most advanced mines.

Mongolia reported 21 more COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the national tally to 629, according to the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD).

The latest confirmed cases were locally transmitted or reported in Selenge province in the country's north, said the NCCD in a statement.

Mongolia has so far reported 203 domestically transmitted cases, notably in the capital city of Ulan Bator and the provinces of Selenge, Darkhan-Uul, Govisumber, Orkhon and Dornogovi.

The first locally transmitted case in Mongolia was a woman whose 29-year-old husband, a transport driver, returned from Russia and tested positive for the virus four days after he was released from 21-day mandatory isolation on Nov. 6.

The Asian country has imposed a nationwide lockdown until Dec. 1 to halt the virus' spread and identify all people who had contact with locally transmitted COVID-19 patients. Enditem