More diplomatic appointment blues for Mongolia www.news.mn

Mongolia has failed to appoint new ambassadors in four counties and new consul generals in five foreign cities due to domestic disputes and blunt refusals form the countries in questions. Currently, Mongolia has no ambassadors in Russia, Sweden, South Korea and Australia; the posts for consul generals remain vacant in San-Francisco, Istanbul, Hohhot and Hong Kong.

Rio strikes deal with Chinese partners to cut steel-making emissions www.mining.com

The world’s No. 2 producer of iron ore, Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO), has inked a preliminary deal with two Chinese partners to develop new ways to cut carbon emissions along the steelmaking supply chain amid increasing pressure from stakeholders to make mining a more environmentally-friendly activity.

‘The Hu’ tops U.S. chart with Gerege album www.news.mn

A new album from ‘The Hu’, the famous Mongolian rock band that blends heavy metal and traditional Mongolian throat singing, has reached No. 1 on the Billboard Chart in the first week of release. ‘The Gereg’ Album has nine hits including, “Yuve Yuve Yu” and “Wolf Totem” – songs which immediately went viral with 16 and 10 million views respectively on YouTube. “Gereg,” is a term that was used to describe a diplomatic passport from the time of Chinggis Khaan.

MIAT to lease Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for direct flight to US www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. MIAT Mongolian Airlines, national flag carrier of Mongolia has reached a lease agreement with the Air Lease Corporation, American aircraft leasing company regarding Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft capable of long-haul direct flight to the USA. The plane is expected to arrive in Mongolia and put into operation by 2021 and the sides yet to agree on price.

Bills on general budget for 2020 ready for submission to parliament www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. At its meeting on September 25, the Cabinet approved bills on 2020 Budget law of Mongolia, 2020 budget of social insurance fund, 2020 budget of health insurance fund, budget framework of 2020 general budget, amendments to the budget assumptions of 2021-2022 and revised version of Government special fund and other draft laws regarding these documents and decided to submit them for parliament debate.

Kincora Releases First Copper-Gold Assays at Mongolia Project www.streetwisereports.com

On September 10th Kincora Copper Ltd. (KCC:TSX.V) provided the first drilling update at its 100%-owned copper-gold porphyry projects in the Southern Gobi region of Mongolia. This update comes after an oversubscribed $6.25 million equity raising in late June.

First phase drilling at Bronze Fox consisted of 4,264 meters at two targets. Results for 2,876 meters were announced in the press release. To put this into content, that's ~16% of a total of 18,000 meters planned across multiple projects/prospects in multiple phases.

The market did not like initial results…..

I understand the disappointment, but was the very negative share price reaction warranted for results that although not great, were not horrible? Readers should know that 84% of the estimated meters to be drilled and assayed, on programs that stretch well into 2020, are yet to be reported.

Three drill holes at Bronze Fox's West West Kasulu (WWK) returned extensive lower-grade mineralization and a few higher-grade zones increasing towards the west. Some shareholders exited stage left on these mediocre results, sending the share price 50% lower in subsequent days to $0.07.

Highlights include drill hole F103, which returned 20m @ 0.64% CuEq from 140m; and 120m @ 0.41% CuEq from 700m. While 0.64% CuEq is a decent grade, the 20m width hardly stands out. And, while a 140m intercept is wide, 0.41% CuEq is nothing to write home about.

Partial results from drill hole F107 at WWK showed more of the same, no blockbuster, conclusive, "discovery" type intervals combined with high-grade copper. F107 contained 8m @ 0.25% Cu (1.26% CuEq) from 528m; 10m @ 0.54% CuEq from 630m; 22m @ 0.55% CuEq from 654m; 30m @ 0.50% CuEq from 702m; 10m @ 0.79% CuEq from 828m and 2m @ 0.22% Cu (1.14% CuEq) from 880m.

The market is looking to see intervals boasting 1%+ CuEq, that are much wider than the 2–8 meter higher-grade segments reported in hole F107, and/or tens of meters of 0.5%+ CuEq near-surface.

Gold's not driving this story, but at ~1/6 the economics, it's not trivial

Something worth remembering is that Mining Associates stated about 16% of the in-situ value is represented by gold from the WWK mineralized system, defined before this drill program started, as a total conceptual exploration target of 1.3–1.5 million tonnes of CuEq metal.

Otherwise mediocre drill results showed pockets of fairly strong gold mineralization. For instance, hole F107 was gold-rich. It had an eight meter intercept grading 0.25% Cu that was 1.26% CuEq.

About 16% of overall value is being driven by a gold price that's up 16% year-to-date, and 23% in the past 12 months. In US$, gold is near a 6.5-year high. Perhaps weighing on bullish gold sentiment is a weak copper price.

I remain bullish on copper due to its essential need in multiple new paradigms (green energy, high-tech, the building/rebuilding of global infrastructure, and the electrification of passenger and commercial vehicles).

Kincora's wholly owned East TS project is 10 to 15 km east of the Tsagaan Suvarga porphyry Cu/Au project, under development on the western margin of the Tsagaan Suvarga intrusive complex. TS has had over US$370 million invested in it and is forecast to produce 316,000 tonnes copper per year.

The market has heard a great deal about Kincora from its CEO Sam Spring. I reached out to SVP of Exploration Peter Leaman to learn more about his views on the projects, and new drilling to date.

Peter Epstein: Can you please provide an overview of your background and your role at Kincora?

Peter Leaman: Yes. I have 40 years' exploration experience, 28 with BHP, and I'm still involved with PanAust (since 2010). I've witnessed firsthand multiple copper and gold discoveries, including the Reko Diq deposit. My current role at Kincora is senior vice president of exploration.

I joined Kincora in late 2016, after the company consolidated the dominant position in the Southern Gobi copper-gold belt and regained full access to the Bronze Fox project. I am a member of the technical committee including Chairman John Holliday.

John is a very seasoned and successful explorer. He, CEO Sam Spring and I oversee a hard-working, skilled Mongolian team of geologists. We also have a strong network of technical advisors, including my old colleague Barry de Wet.

I feel I have unfinished business in this belt and in Mongolia. I ran the BHP Falcon JV with Ivanhoe in the 2000's, which was the last district-scale exploration in the region (before Kincora). I was involved, at the development stage, in the BHP review team of Oyu Tolgoi.

In carefully reviewing the data on Kincora's projects, I saw, and continue to see, the potential for globally significant discoveries.

Peter Epstein: Thanks Peter, what are your thoughts on the current Kincora exploration program?

Peter Leaman: Kincora announced initial exploration results from the first phase of drilling at Bronze Fox, and drilling has commenced at our second priority target, a brownfield project, East Tsagaan Suvarga. Multiple-phase programs are underway at both projects. We are undertaking the first modern, systematic exploration and drilling at district scale in the Southern Gobi.

Kincora is implementing a sophisticated exploration approach, testing targets in a way that the majors would. We are testing targets with significant scale potential and improving the odds, as best we can. Importantly, we are using methods that are significantly improved from my time at the Falcon JV period.

That said, we are all very mindful of the fact that, as a junior, the market judges you press release by press release. We are undertaking high-risk, high-reward exploration, and we recognize that we need to get good results with the current 12-month program and budget.

Peter Epstein: How do you see last weeks' exploration update? Were first phase results at Bronze Fox disappointing? Have you drilled the best targets?

Peter Leaman: Bronze Fox is a large, lower-grade system with zones of higher-grade copper and gold. Its size and relative lack of extensive drilling, with complementary geophysics done since the last drill campaign, suggests that a deeper and higher-grade core could be present at depth. An analogy is the Red Chrisdeposit in British Columbia, Canada.

We have better defined the system and greatly improved our understanding of the new geophysics, lithological controls and depth profile of the target zone. Like all shareholders, we wanted to see more high-grade from the initial results. Everyone wants a discovery yesterday—that's what we're looking to do—discover a new high-grade zone.

But, we have to continue in a systematic and unemotional way. Merely adding confidence and tonnage to the system is not our goal, the clear goal is to provide compelling evidence of a high-grade system and core.

In the end, we don't have to drill hundreds of holes ourselves, just tee it up for bigger players to take notice. SolGold in Ecuador is a prime example of a tier 1 discovery that attracted cornerstone investments by BHP and Newcrest.

I will shortly lead the team reviewing these results in the field, with the critical element being the area to the west where there is sufficient scale for a large system. We want to revisit the original concept of a preserved monzodiorite system being an attractive and higher grade target. So far, Phase 1 drilling supports the most prospective part of the system being away from the regional fault to the west.

Phase 1 is providing valuable results and insights to help us better understand the system correlating to the new geophysics, thereby assisting and informing our plans for phase 2. Our focus on Mongolia is to find globally significant new discoveries, not average-to-low-grade results or deposits.

Peter Epstein: Can you provide an update on current activities?

Peter Leaman: Yes, we have drilled ~4,200m of up to 18,000m, with assay results outstanding on a third of the initial ~4,200m at Bronze Fox, and we have moved the rigs to a project that we call East TS—East Tsagaan Suvarga.

We are now testing a number of large-scale targets that may be caused by blind and potentially high-grade porphyry copper mineralization. This is a project that has me very excited given its location, age and scale potential, but it's early stage.

In addition to drilling at East Tsagaan Suvarga we are also continuing with project generation activities, which we believe is very important for any sustainable exploration strategy at our stage.

With that in mind, in the next several weeks I will be reviewing various projects identified by our team that could strategically fit within our exploration portfolio. In the past 18 months, we have walked over 200 projects/targets in the field as part of our due diligence.

Separately, we have just made an application for a new exploration license prospective for gold-rich copper porphyries—large size, good location, previous drilling (limited), but including a >1% copper hit, that was inadequately followed up on. We are looking to leverage the strong team we have in place and our systematic exploration approach.

Peter Epstein: What final message would you like to pass on to investors?

Peter Leaman: I am a significant shareholder in Kincora, as is most of our senior team. We are true believers in new discoveries continuing to be made in Mongolia. I have confidence in the rigorous, systematic exploration approach the company has adopted for undercover exploration.

We have assembled a strong team, particularly for a junior with our tiny enterprise value, and our demonstrated ability to make globally significant discoveries. We have a highly prospective portfolio of targets that are finally getting the meters they deserve, and a project generation strategy that I am confident will yield positive results with continued hard work.

Peter Epstein: Thank you, Peter. I look forward to seeing the results from drilling over the next year!

Peter Epstein is the founder of Epstein Research. His background is in company and financial analysis. He holds an MBA degree in financial analysis from New York University's Stern School of Business.

'The devil's excrement': How did oil price become so important? www.bbc.com

It was 27 August 1859, and a crucial message had been sent. Entrepreneur Edwin Drake's last financial backer had finally lost patience. Pay off your debts, give up and come home, the message read.

Drake had been hoping to find "rock oil", a brownish unrefined "crude" oil that sometimes bubbled near the surface of western Pennsylvania. He planned to refine it into kerosene, for lamps - a substitute for increasingly expensive whale oil.

There would also be less useful by-products, such as gasoline, but if he couldn't find a buyer for that he could always pour it away.

The message had been sent, but Drake had not yet received it when his drill bit punctured an underground reservoir full of crude oil under pressure. From 69 ft (21m) beneath the surface, the oil began to rise.

The whales had been saved, and the world was about to change.

Just a few miles south and a few years later, came a hint of what lay in store.

When oil was struck at Pithole, Pennsylvania, in 1864, "there were not 50 inhabitants within half a dozen miles", according to the New York Times.

Pithole City at the height of its short-lived oil boom in 1865
A year later, Pithole had at least 10,000 inhabitants, 50 hotels, one of the country's busiest post offices, two telegraph stations and dozens of brothels.

A few men made fortunes, but a real economy is complex and self-sustaining. Pithole was neither, and within another year, it was gone.

Its oil boom did not last, but our thirst for the fuel grew and grew. The modern economy is drenched in oil.

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that helped create the economic world.

It is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen to all the episodes online or subscribe to the programme podcast.

It's the source of more than a third of the world's energy.

That's more than coal, and more than twice as much as nuclear, hydroelectric and renewable energy sources combined.

Oil and gas together provide a quarter of our electricity, and the raw material for most plastics.

Then there's transport.

Edwin Drake may have questioned who would buy gasoline, but the internal combustion engine was about to give him an answer. From cars to trucks, cargo ships to jet planes, oil-derived fuel still moves us - and stuff - around.

In 1973, when some Arab states declared an embargo on sales to several rich nations, prices surged from $3 to $12 a barrel in just six months.

It led to a global slowdown, with US recessions following subsequent price spikes in 1978, 1990, and 2001. Some economists even believe that record high oil prices played an important role in the global recession of 2008, which is conventionally blamed on the banking crisis alone.

As oil goes, so goes the economy.

So why did we become so excruciatingly dependent on the stuff?

Churchill was made head of the Royal Navy in 1911.

One of his first decisions was whether the British Empire would meet the challenge of an expansionist Germany with new battleships powered by safe, secure Welsh coal, or by oil from faraway Persia - modern-day Iran.

Why would anyone rely on such an insecure source? Because oil-fired battleships would accelerate more quickly and sustain a higher speed, required fewer men to deal with the fuel and would have more capacity for guns and ammunition.

Oil was simply a better fuel than coal.

Churchill's "fateful plunge" in April 1912 reflected the same logic that has governed our dependence on oil - and shaped global politics - ever since.

After Churchill's decision, the British Treasury bought a majority stake in the Anglo-Persian oil company - the ancestor of BP.
In 1951, it was nationalised by the government of Iran. Our company, protested the British. Our oil, responded the Iranians. The argument would be repeated around the world over the subsequent decades.

Some countries did well. Saudi Arabia is one of the richest on the planet, thanks to its large oil reserves.

Its state-owned oil company, ASaudi Aramco, is worth more than Apple or Google or Amazon.

Still, nobody would mistake Saudi Arabia for a complex, sophisticated economy such as that of Japan or Germany. It's perhaps a bit more like Pithole on a grander scale.

Elsewhere, from Iraq to Iran, Venezuela to Nigeria, few oil-rich countries have prospered from the discovery. Economists call it the "curse of oil".

Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, Venezuela's oil minister in the early 1960s, had a more vivid description. "It is the devil's excrement," he declared in 1975. "We are drowning in the devil's excrement."

Mongolia tenders 10 MW solar plant in Khovd Province www.news.mn

Mongolia’s Ministry of Energy is seeking contractors to develop and construct a 10 MW solar power plant in Khovd, the administrative centre of the province of the same name in the westernmost part of the country.

Mongolia launches national campaign to reduce traffic accidents www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia launched a national campaign on Tuesday to reduce traffic accidents, local authorities said.

Xanadu Mines receives more evidence of potential shallow oxide gold resource in Mongolia www.proactiveinvestors.com.au

Xanadu Mines Ltd (ASX:XAM) (TSE:XAM) has received broad high-grade results from the Golden Eagle oxide gold target at its flagship Kharmagtai project in southern Mongolia.

These results from nine shallow drill holes are encouraging and indicate the potential for a near-surface oxide resource.

The potential for alluvial gold above Golden Eagle is also being assessed with promising results to date.

“Largest zone of oxide gold”
Xanadu’s chief executive officer Dr Andrew Stewart said, “We are very pleased by the first drill results from the oxide zone at Golden Eagle.

“This represents the largest zone of oxide gold at Kharmagtai and this initial drill program is designed to expand the system and confirm continuity of oxide gold mineralisation.”

One hole returned 30 metres at 1.34 g/t from 37 metres, including 8 metres at 3.34 g/t from 38 metres and within this was 6 metres at 3.94 g/t from 40 metres.

Another hole returned 38.4 metres at 1.25 g/t from 34 metres, including 18 metres at 2.12 g/t from 35 metres and within this was 10 metres at 3.02 g/t from 39 metres.

Aims of program
The nine-hole program was initiated at Golden Eagle aimed at expanding the gold-rich core and confirming continuity of oxide gold mineralisation.

Another aim was to test the paleo-surface for potential alluvial enrichment above the oxide zone.

In systems where gold mineralisation outcrops at a paleo-surface it is common to encounter extremely high-grade zones of alluvial gold in paleochannels at the paleo-surface.

Other results were:

26 metres at 0.33 g/t from 41 metres, including 10 metres at 0.41 g/t from 41 metres;
9 metres at 1.19 g/t from 45 metres, including 3 metres at 2.48 g/t from 47 metres;
25.8 metres at 0.65 g/t from 35.2 metres;
23 metres at 0.5 g/t from 40 metres, including 12.1 metres at 0.64 g/t from 40 metres;
24 metres at 0.76 g/t from 36 metres, including 14 metres at 0.87 g/t from 36 metres; and
27.1 metres at 0.73 g/t from 37.9 metres, including 8 metres at 1.09 g/t Au from 39 metres.

Encouraging metallurgy
Preliminary metallurgical test work results provide a very good indication of the viability of a simple and efficient gold recovery process at Golden Eagle.

Stewart said, “Existing metallurgy from Golden Eagle is extremely encouraging and this zone of mineralisation has returned recoveries of up to 92.56%.”

Xanadu’s objective is to develop Mongolia’s next large-scale open-pit copper and gold deposit.

The CEO said, “We are encouraged by what we see at Stockwork Hill, particularly the grade and potential scale and strike extent of the oxide system.

“The new results demonstrate clear progress and, given Kharmagtai sits on a granted mining lease with a registered water resource and an established power supply nearby, we have the ability to move quickly on an oxide gold project.

“Our current strategy of seeking high-return options via an oxide gold project is focused on providing the capital needed to advance the larger scale copper and gold project.”