MNT 3 billion and 633 million worth 188 types of raw and other materials and reagents necessary for producing 68 innovative products to be produced by 12 innovation project implementers in 7 industries such as productions of cosmetics, laboratory diagnostic devices, biotechnological and microbiology products, natural mineral compounds, pharmaceuticals, and veterinary medicines and nutrients are listed to be exempted from the taxes.

The decision enables the innovators to make state of the art innovative export oriented or import substitute products that would contribute to the country’s economic growth.

A working group of 40 people headed by Deputy Prime Minister U.Enkhtuvshin will work for over 100 days to inspect each of 2889 special licenses and create a unified database. The Government states that it will pay attention on enforcing laws, regulations and rules related to running accountable mining activities.

Over 700 special licenses were cancelled in the last three years due to illegal activities. By doing so, the number of special licenses decreased to 2889, which was around 3500. 1664 of them are mining licenses and 1225 are exploration licenses.

Under the project, USD 10 million will be spent on maintenance and replacement of heat pipes, installation of pumps and dashboard with energy efficiency mode, refurbishment of central substations, establishment of energy center, and installation of accumulators that would store the heat produced at nighttime and excess heat of thermal power plants and improvement of heat distribution efficiency .

The 15-year loan with a moratorium period of 3 years has an interest rate of LIBORr+1 (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate plus 1 percent). Moreover, EBRD has decided to provide non-refundable aid of EUR 4.5 million and technical assistance worth USD 1.5 million for the implementation of the project.

Under the agreement, law enforcement agencies from the two neighbours will closely cooperate to prevent and suppress terrorist activities by sharing information on possible attacks and on suspected terrorists or terrorist groups.

Although there has been no recent history of terrorism in Mongolia, attacks cannot be ruled out.

Mongolia has signed agreements on cooperation in combating terrorism with the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation, as well as the agreement on cooperation in combating crimes with the People’s Republic of China.

The Mongolian government has granted ION Energy one of the largest exploration licenses in the country for the company’s Baavhai-Uul project in the Sukhbaatar province. The 81,758-hectare asset contains high-grade near-surface lithium brines of up to 810ppm with low potassium and magnesium ratios, which makes for better crystallization of the lithium hydroxide. ION Energy is the first company to be granted a license for this asset, which has never been mined previously. Previous exploration work has been conducted on the project by the Technical University of Mongolia and the Mongolian government.

The global lithium market was worth US$2.86 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow to US$5.88 billion by the end of 2025, according to data by Adroit Market Research. Lithium’s growth is being driven by demand from the green energy and electric vehicle markets. Rising concern over global carbon emissions is leading to the rising adoption of renewable energy generation technologies including electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage technologies, all of which require massive amounts of battery metals like lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The International Energy Agency projects the number of electric vehicles on the road to reach 125 million by 2030, with each one containing a large lithium-ion battery. Battery-producing megafactories, including Tesla’s famous giga-factories, are being built around the world, with 91 such facilities expected to be operational by 2028. Governments around the world, including the United States and Chinese governments, are working to secure supplies of battery metals to prepare for a green energy future.

The ceremony was attended by national contractors who were crucial for the development of one of the world’s largest and most modern shafts project and other key stakeholders.

In special remarks delivered at the celebration event by Ambassador Batsukh Galsan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Oyu Tolgoi LLC, highlighted the great support provided by the Government of Mongolia for this remarkable achievement, which increases Mongolia’s global competitiveness in terms of the mining and technology development.

Armando Torres, Chief Executive Officer of Oyu Tolgoi LLC said, “Shaft 2 construction – from sinking through to equipping – has taken three years and four months in total. Close to 50 national companies and 2,500 people worked safely on Shaft 2 for approximately 2.6 million hours to complete this critical and complex piece of infrastructure that will accelerate the underground development of our Oyu Tolgoi mine”.

Shaft 2 with a depth of 1,284 metres is the main production shaft and primary access point for people and materials and provides infrastructure for the materials handling system in the underground mine. Its production hoist is the largest Koepe (Friction) rope hoist system in the world with two 60 tonne capacity skips capable of hoisting 28,000 tonnes of ore per day at a maximum speed of 59km/hr.

Shaft 2 can carry 300 people per cage cycle versus a maximum of 60 people per cage cycle through Shaft 1. Shaft 2’s hoist rope-up process took 23 days by a team of approximately 500 people – one of the safest and most efficient rope-ups undertaken anywhere in the world.

Once Shaft 2 is fully commissioned and receives state licensing, it enables the following two important steps forward for the underground mine:

- Additional crews, materials and equipment to be transported and operate underground and,

- More rock to be removed from underground to enable further development and access to the ore body

From this point, the number of people working underground will no longer be constrained by the Service lift capacity of Shaft 1, but rather by volume of air moving through the underground via the existing ventilation (shafts 1, 2 and 5). Additional ventilation capacity is under construction with two more ventilation shafts - shaft 3 (intake) and 4 (exhaust). Currently, 700 people are able to work underground per shift.

39.1 percent of carried freight by railway transport was domestic freight, 36.3 percent was exports, 10.6 percent was imports and 14 percent was transit, which means transit and export freights increased by 0.8 and 0.4 points respectively, whereas domestic and import freight decreased by 0.8 and 0.4 points from the same period of the previous year.

In the first 11 months of 2019, 83.2 percent of carried freight by railway transport was mining freight, 10 percent was construction materials, 1.3 percent was iron, 1.3 percent was agriculture product, 0.9 percent was food products, 0.6 percent was wood products, 0.1 percent was factory equipment and 2.5 percent was other products.