Although most miners at this point, including Rio Tinto itself, have implemented protocols to avoid the spread of the disease at their mine sites, in this particular case the measures are of extreme importance given that Diavik is located in one of the most remote corners of the world — about 2100 kilometres from the North Pole in the Barren Lands of the Northwest Territories.

The region occupies an important portion of the country’s northwestern landmass and about 50% of its population is composed of Indigenous peoples who live in remote communities, have limited access to primary health care and rely on aeromedical evacuations for emergency care. However, as of May 10, 2020, the Northwest Territories had only five confirmed cases of covid-19 and none had been registered at Diavik.

Rio Tinto increases precautionary measures to prevent coronavirus outbreak at Canadian diamond mine
Diavik is the mine where the now legendary Foxfire diamond, a 187.6-carat rare stone and the largest uncut, gem-quality diamond ever mined in North America, was unearthed in 2015. (Image from Foxfirediamond.com)
“We are committed to doing everything we can to protect our people and communities, and this testing will add a further layer to the robust precautionary measures we already have in place at Diavik,” the mine’s chief operating officer, Richard Storrie, said in a media statement.

The world’s second-largest mining company is backing its efforts with the guidance of not-for-profit public health experts GuardRX, who have installed an on-site laboratory at Diavik to conduct a testing program for employees and contractors using nasopharyngeal swabs.

All personnel are tested on arrival at Diavik and before leaving to return home.

According to Rio, the program is being executed in collaboration with the Chief Public Health Officer of the Northwest Territories.

Prior to implementing this additional safety measure, the company had already put in place a protocol that included the obligation of completing 14 days of recorded self-monitoring before travelling to the mine, including temperature checks and physical distancing; medical screening before travelling to the mine through a hotline with physician assistants; health screening with temperature checks before boarding flights to the mine; and daily monitoring including temperature testing while at the mine.

They drilled 500-900 m deep wells in eight locations and coal samples were tested for methane gas composition. On April 22, 2020, the Cabinet authorized Erdenes Methane to conclude a production sharing agreement for coal seam methane gas sites at Tavantolgoi coal deposits, making it possible to commence exploration, reserves estimation, and feasibility studies.

On May 6, Director of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority Kh.Kherlen and Executive Director of Erdees Methane D.Amar signed a production-sharing agreement for the exploration and exploitation of coal seam methane gas at Tavantolgoi’s XXXIII exploration site, where methane gas has been detected. The exploration site has estimated coal reserves of over 100 billion tons. Erdenes Mongol CEO P.Gankhuu expressed his hope that the exploitation of the mineral will play an important role in the country’s economic growth and reduction of air pollution.

It was also noted that Jade Methane coped with the difficulties faced in the first phase of the project alone without burdening the country’s budget, and carried out methane gas exploration at Tavantolgoi coal deposits.

Erdenes Methan is the first state owned company to be allowed to establish a production sharing agreement.

The factory has manufactured 3.5 million face masks for the state reserves since the year began. Currently, they are producing 150 thousand face masks per day with increased capacity to provide for the citizens’ necessity.

They have also begun to manufacture personal protective equipment for the medical professionals and officials working in risky conditions during the pandemic since February. During this period, the factory has provided a total of 85 thousand protective gear for the state reserves, and 50 thousand protective gear for the commissions received from the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The material used to produce the gear fully meets quality standards as it is purchased from a South Korean factory that exports to the U.S., highlighted the factory executives.

There are 41 imported cases of COVID-19 recorded in Mongolia, with 13 recoveries. During this time, no doctors and hospital staff have become infected, which proves the sufficient quality of the personal protective equipment, highlighted Minister of Foreign Affairs D.Tsogtbaatar. He then noted that he sees possible opportunities to export these types of products to other countries once the pandemic ends.

Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia Gregory May said, “It is a proud achievement for Mongolia to domestically produce protective gear that meets hygienic and quality standards during this difficult time of the global pandemic. As trade turnover between our two countries is lower than our expectations, we are interested in new opportunities to expand trades in the framework of the strategic partnership. After Mongolian cashmere products, I perceive that hospital gear can also be put on the U.S. market,” and noted that all possible opportunities to expand economic partnership with Mongolia is being sought regardless of geographical distance and transport difficulties between the two countries.

S.Munkh-Erdene has fulfilled his childhood dream for opening a sneakers shop. In the early 2000’s, there were very few people who wore sneakers. The young entrepreneur was encouraged after he sold three pairs of speakers in Mongolia as soon as he had ordered them from Japan. According to him, 10-20 percent of sneakers lovers want to buy the hottest and newest products selling worldwide while others like to search for old brands. ‘K50’ sells sneakers at prices ranging between MNT 99,000 and MNT 15,000,000, while having over 400 types of 2000 pairs in stock. The shop has been buying its original sneakers from the USA, Taiwan, South Korea, Russia, Japan and Sweden; however, some of these suppliers have closed amid coronavirus restrictions.

In addition to ‘K50’, there are other shops; namely Duud, Fan Shop, Tokyo Shop and Chicago which have been importing original sneakers into Mongolia since 2009.

This marks a milestone for Walt Disney and provides a glimpse of how it might recover from the pandemic that has forced it to shut parks in Asia, the United States, and France, as well as operations at its retail stores and cruise ships.

At the Shanghai park, Walt Disney has put in place measures, including social distancing, masks and temperature screenings for visitors and employees, and is for now keeping visitor numbers “far below” 24,000 people, or 30% of the daily capacity, a level requested by the Chinese government.

Tickets for the earliest days of Shanghai Disneyland’s re-opening sold out rapidly on Friday.

“We hope that today’s reopening can serve as a beacon of light across the globe, providing hope and inspiration for everyone, and can demonstrate that we can overcome any challenge together,” Joe Schott, president and general manager of Shanghai Disney Resort, said at a ceremony.

Prior to the park’s reopening, roughly thirty annual pass holders in Mickey Mouse outfits waited outside its gates where, to enforce social distancing, yellow squares had been drawn on the ground for people queuing to stand in.

One of them, who gave her English name as Kaira, said prior to the outbreak she typically visited the Disneyland once every week. “It’s relaxing here, it’s kind of magical,” she said.

Disney executives estimated last week the global closures will cost the company $1.4 billion in profits.

Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Himani Sarkar

With the aim of reducing air pollution, the Government of Mongolia imposed a ban on the consumption of raw coal, with refined coal briquette as replacement. Thus, the ‘Tavan Tolgoi Fuel’ Company was established for the manufacturing of the refined coal briquette and has been providing briquettes to Ger dwelling area residents in Ulaanbaatar city since last year. Work is underway to increase the company’s current manufacturing capacity of about 3,000 tons per day to 3,500 tons.

The National Committee on Environmental Pollution Reduction has set the price for the coal briquette at MNT 150,000 per ton in an effort to keep its price lower than raw coal and provide balance between its supply and demand.

However, the value-added tax imposed on each ton of the product was estimated to bring its price to MNT 165,000, which is expected to negatively affect the household purchasing power and livelihood. For this reason, the bill for the Law on the Exemption of Value-added Tax was developed by the Government. As this type of VAT has not been previously collected from the Tavan Tolgoi Fuel company yet, the change would not affect budget revenue, as introduced at the plenary session of the parliament.

In his address he said, “The 41 imported cases of COVID-19 from over 10 countries in Mongolia is a serious warning for our country.

Thus, we are faced with the necessity to take precautionary measures, and to strengthen readiness even more than the previous months in order to not have community spread in the country and create a safe environment for all of us to live, work and study.

We have prior experience in organizing comprehensive exercises for the protection of disasters and emergencies on the levels of aimag and region.

As a result of this exercise involving citizens and corresponding government organizations, I believe that our method of operations will have improved, available resources appropriately defined, our pressing issues realistically perceived, and its countermeasures and solutions will be urgently taken if the risky conditions arise.”

Noting that the exercise is being organized on the same level of nationwide exercise, the PM then highly commended the State Emergency Commission’s efforts in organizing the emergency management exercise as all emergency commissions and emergency management officials throughout the country are getting in contact online.

Exercises will also be organized for emergency officials and medical professionals at the 300-bed medical facility set up at Buyant-Ukhaa Sports Complex, the 100-bed hospital wing of the newly built maternity hospital, and the Retraining and Rehabilitation Center of the National Emergency Management Agency in the framework of the drill today.

Copper trading in New York rose by more almost 2% to $2.391 a pound ($5,270 a tonne) in lunchtime trade, on track to close at an eight-week high. In March, the bellwether metal briefly traded below $2.00, levels last seen during the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.

Customs data showed China’s refined copper imports in April rose 14% from a year ago to just under 442,000 tonnes, as factories and construction activity continues to ramp up.

For the first four months of the year, copper imports are up 10.4%, also boosted by a drawdown of stockpiles in warehouses overseen by the Shanghai Futures Exchange and arbitrage opportunities for traders between LME and SHFE prices.

China consumes more than half the world’s copper and last year cargoes totaled just shy of 5 million tonnes, down 6% from a record high of 5.3 million tonnes in 2018.

April imports of copper concentrate rebounded, topping 2 million tonnes for only the third time. Cargoes for the month soared by 22.5% over the same month last year as shipments from South America recover following production halts and logistics problems.

For the first four months of 2020 imports total 7.58 million tonnes, on pace to surpass last year’s record-breaking tally of 22 million tonnes.

Argonaut Securities analyst Helen Lau told Reuters there may be supply issues for copper concentrates as Chinese demand grows:

“Smelting facilities in South America and Africa will be affected by the pandemic, so certainly I think going forward, demand in China will continue to improve but there will be some supply risk for unwrought copper as well as for concentrate.”