The number of traded securities decreased by 90.8 percent in March www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In the first three months of 2020, securities worth of MNT 9.6 billion were traded at the national stock market, showing a decrease of MNT 58.0 billion (85.8%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

New UB administration offices to open in Yarmag www.news.mn

The Ulaanbaatar municipal organisation offices are to move to the New Yarmag Centre in the Khan-Uul District of the capital. Consisting of three blocks, the new office complex will cover 58262 square meters; the total allocated area is to be 5.0 hectares. Construction is nearly complete.

Copper price rally builds after China imports surprise www.mining.com

Copper jumped on Tuesday after a rebound in Chinese imports of the metal indicated the country’s manufacturing sector may be emerging faster than initially thought from the covid-19 slump.

Impacts of COVID-19 are currently low, but uncertainty in Artisanal Gold Mining Communities remains high www.artisanalgold.org

Since Mongolia transitioned away from central planning in 1990, mining has come to play a dominant role in the economy. In 2016, the mineral sector accounted for 20.6% of Mongolia’s GDP, 80% of its exports, 30% of the national budget revenue, and more than 70% of the country’s foreign direct investment. Gold is the single largest mineral by value produced in Mongolia. In 2019, the Central Bank of Mongolia bought 15.2 tonnes of gold of which 48% or 7.4 tonnes were supplied by individuals including artisanal and small-scale miners[1].

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) operations are present in as many as fourteen of the country’s twenty-one provinces. Artisanal miners are estimated to number somewhere between 40,000 to 60,000 people, or 12%-20% of Mongolia’s rural labor force. A third of these miners are women.

Following the news of the outbreak of COVID-19 in neighbouring China, Mongolian authorities took immediate and rapid measures to prevent the virus from entering the country. The Mongolian government closed all border crossings and suspended universities, public institutions, and public events for nearly six weeks, starting very early in the last week of January 2020 and continuing until March 2, 2020. This has since been extended to April 30, 2020. On April 14, authorities announced that schools would remain closed until September 1, 2020.

Authorities credit these restrictions with keeping the number of COVID-19 infections in Mongolia quite low, though those numbers are now rising. With a population of around 3.2 million, Mongolia had as of April 14, 2020 reported 30 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 13 cases from the day before. Most of these cases were actually Mongolian citizens repatriated from abroad who had travelled through Russia on their way home. To date, there have been no deaths.

Had the virus not been kept out so effectively it might have hit artisanal mining communities particularly hard, as is evident in other countries (see Burkina Faso and the Philippines). Closing artisanal mining can be devastating because many artisanal miners in Mongolia earn income solely from their day-to-day labor and need to sell the gold they recover for sustenance. This leaves miners highly vulnerable to any shut down or interruptions in the gold supply chain. To date, thankfully, the impacts of COVID-19 remain minimal.

The gold supply chain is weakened but not broken

According to miners and gold traders, local gold prices in Mongolia have not yet been strongly affected. Mongolia has tightened its isolation measures twice – once for 10 days during the Lunar New Year celebrations, and a second time for a few days after March 10, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported. During these days, miners were prohibited from travelling to their mine sites but at all other times, mining has continued as normal. During February and March, aside from a minor increase in the prices of meat and rice in some areas, the supply and prices of food and common goods have also not altered drastically.

While no dramatic impact from COVID-19 has yet been observed, the closure of all educational institutions at all levels does risk harming women miners’ productivity. Women miners carry the double burden of taking care of their children and families as well as earning an income. With schools closed, female miners are faced with the choice of foregoing income to stay home and care for their children, or bringing their children with them to an active mine site with its risks.

A miner’s story

“During the first lockdown, we were quarantined in Tunkhel village, and a few miners who were working at the Bulag ASM site were also stranded as the area became inaccessible,” said B. Myagmarsuren, a miner in Selenge province. Myagmarsuren has been selling gold to a processing plant in Bornuur Soum in Tuv province for about ten years at a competitive price. As recently as April 8, this processing plant was buying gold at 130,000 MNT (about US$46.67) per gram, or about 88% or world price. As world gold prices have increased, the price offerred by this processing plant has actually increased to 140,000 MNT (US$ 50.31) or about 90.5% of world price.

Myagmarsuren added that if other preventive measures are announced, such as an extended in-country travel ban or lockdown, then “we would have to cease activities or work in a very limited scope, making us very vulnerable,” she said.

Miners believe that interrupting their ability to extract ore and sell gold would freeze the local economy. Gas stations and grocery stores are mainly dependent on the local gold market. For many communities, the artisanal gold sector is one of their most important sources of income.

Formalization of Mongolia’s artisanal gold mining sector an added challenge

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Mongolia remains a largely informal sector. The Artisanal Gold Council has been working since 2019 in partnership with the government authorities through its GEF-funded planetGOLD project towards providing improved conditions for formalization.

Hoping the current situation surrounding COVID-19 does not get worse, one miner said: “Cancelling the formalization process is another fear we have … it would drive artisanal miners into the black market and consider operating in illegal ways to extract gold.”

Should conditions surrounding the artisanal gold sector in Mongolia worsen due to COVID-19, formalized miners may be less vulnerable than the informal ones because they would have a higher chance of receiving government assistance. In an odd way, the current health crisis could also be an opportunity. Governments looking to mitigate the crisis might come through with loans or assistance programs for formalized miners and thereby create a lasting incentive with clear benefits for the informal parts of the sector to move forward with their own formalization efforts. Many mining communities continue to dream of a scenario in which the artisanal gold mining sector is regarded just like any other small to medium enterprise in the country and the COVID-19 crisis makes a good example of why it is important to realize that dream.

The AGC in Mongolia and planetGOLD

The AGC has been working on artisanal mining issues in Mongolia for several years is a proud participant in the country’s planetGOLD programme. PlanetGOLD is an innovative programme that aims to improve the lives of artisanal and small-scale gold miners by focusing on four core areas: technical solutions, access to finance, formalization, and knowledge creation/awareness raising.

SEC: MNT 150,000 fine for not wearing face masks www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. At today’s press briefing by the State Emergency Commission (SEC), Colonel B.Uuganbayar, Deputy Chief of the National Emergency Management said that “Let’s wear face masks” public campaign is running across the nation to promote the use of protective face masks in prevention of the spread of the COVID-19 and residents could be considered to intentionally harm other people's health if caught not wearing face masks in public places and fined MNT 150,000 for under the Law on Infringement.

Mongolia's export decreased by 41.5 percent www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In the first quarter of 2020, Mongolia traded with 121 countries from all over the world. The total trade turnover reached USD 2.2 billion, of which USD 1.0 billion were exports and USD 1.2 billion were imports. Total foreign trade turnover decreased by USD 860.1 million (28.1%), of which exports decreased by USD 735.9 million (41.5%) and imports decreased by USD 124.2 million (9.7%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

Equilibrated balance shows a deficit of MNT 276.0 billion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results in the first quarter of 2020, the total revenue of the general Government budget amounted to MNT 2.2 trillion, and MNT 2.1 trillion of which accounted for equilibrated revenue. Total equilibrated revenue was sharing 93.2% of the general government budget revenue.

Transportation revenue decreases by 25 percent www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. In the first quarter of 2020, 10.2 million tons of freight were carried in total by all types of transport means which decreased by 5.1 million tons (33.4%) compared with the same period of previous year. The decrease was mainly due to 5.6 million tons (64.2%) of decrease in road freight.

Erdenes TT coal exports – practically back to normal www.news.mn

State owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi is one of the most important companies in Mongolia. Recently, the enterprise came back to life, as some of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic were lifted. Thus, between 1 and 12 April, it produced a total of 3.5 million tonnes of coal from its East and West Tsankh mines located in the South Gobi Province. The company has transported a total of 321 thousand of tonnes coal and exported nearly 6000 tonnes of coal to China. In other words, Erdenes TT is now operating at almost normally rates after Mongolia reopened its border with China earlier this month. The country closed its borders with China in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in mid-February.

Sales of industrial production decreased by 35 percent www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results, the gross industrial output reached MNT 3.1 trillion, in the first quarter of 2020, showing a decrease of MNT 778.3 billion (19.9%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to the decrease in mining and quarrying gross output by MNT 859.1 billion (29.8%), while manufacturing output increased by MNT 23.2 billion (3.3%), electricity, thermal energy and water supply output by MNT 57.6 billion (17.2%), respectively.

In the first quarter of 2020, the mining and quarrying gross output was decreased by MNT 859.1 billion (29.8%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to decreases in the mining of coal and lignite by MNT 600.7 billion (46.0%), extraction of crude petroleum by MNT 167.6 billion (70.4%) and mining of metal ores by MNT 91.8 billion (7.0%), respectively.

Out of the mining and quarrying gross output, 60.4 percent was comprised from the mining of metal ores, 34.9 percent was from the mining of coal and lignite, 3.5 percent was from the extraction of crude petroleum and 1.2 percent was from other mining and quarrying in the first quarter of 2020.

By the preliminary results of the first quarter of 2020, in the mining and quarrying sector, the extraction of gold was increased by 84.4 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. In the manufacturing sector, concentrated coal, lime, milk, wheat flour, productions of pure water, soft drink, juice were increased by 4.9 percent to 53.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. By the preliminary results of the first quarter of 2020, the production of coal briquette was increased by 5.6 times more compared to the same period of the previous year.

Moreover, in the mining and quarrying sector, extraction of flour spar, brown coal, copper concentrate, iron ore, hard coal and crude oil was decreased by 2.0 percent to 72.4 percent. In the manufacturing sector, alcoholic beverage, productions of metal foundries, combed cashmere, copper cathode, cashmere products, metal steel, meat, cement are decreased by 3.5 percent to 71.8 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

By the preliminary results of the first quarter of 2020, the sales of industrial production reached MNT 3.0 trillion, decreased by MNT 1.6 trillion (35.0%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly resulted from the decrease of MNT 1.6 trillion (48.1%) in sales of mining and quarrying and MNT 96.0 billion (9.5%) in sales of manufacturing, while the sales of electricity, thermal energy and water supply were increased by MNT 58.4 billion (17.4%).

For the total sales of industrial production, MNT 1.6 trillion (54.2%) were from export, of which the export of mining and quarrying was MNT 1.4 trillion (83.7%) and the export of manufacturing was MNT 267.2 billion (16.3%).

For the sales of mining and quarrying production, MNT 1.4 trillion (83.7%) was comprised from the export, of which 67.9 percent was from the mining of metal ores, 25.9 percent was from the mining of coal and lignite, 3.6 percent was the extraction of crude petroleum, 2.6 percent was other from mining and quarrying. 2.6 percent was other from mining and quarrying.

Source: National Statistics Office