Zagdjav Deleg: Oyu Tolgoi must stop www.gogo.mn
Deputy minister of Mining and Heavy Industry to take initiative against Oyu Tolgoi.
Deputy Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry Zagdjav Deleg announced to hold a press conference on Monday. However the Deputy Minister cancelled the meeting for uncertain reasons. According to some sources, the press conference supposed to be about Oyu Tolgoi residual deposits.
In the past, he had stated, “The Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren has a lobby group in the Parliament. This specific group initiated a plan to split the agreement and will soon present a draft agreement to the parliament. The benefits of Oyu Tolgoi are still invisible to the public and Mongolia`s economy.”
“After three years of operation, the company extracted around 3 million tons of copper extraction alone amounts to 600 thousand tons. no profit gained from this production. Rio Tinto recently raised USD 4.5 billion to finance Oyu Tolgoi. The fund has been split among the stakeholders. Not a single penny was brought into Mongolia. Mongolia`s debt. along with its interest rate, for the 34 percent ownership of Oyu Tolgoi equals around USD 2 billion. Why did company not pay off this debt?
This is the biggest reason why Oyu Tolgoi operations need to stop. However, the public had no information about it, which is regrettable. Therefore, the operation of Oyu Tolgoi must stop” said The Deputy Minister of Mining and heavy Industry at the Cabinet`s session.
Therefore, the Deputy Minister might be planning to bring up Oyu Tolgoi once again at the press conference. He also stated “Many Parliament members oppose the Oyu Tolgoi agreement, which was established in Dubai by the former PM Saikhanbileg Chimed. The current PM Khurelsukh Ukhnaa previously announced to inspect the Oyu Tolgoi agreement once he takes office. If there are illegal actions involved, they had to be settled by international regulations”.
Therefore, sources are saying that Mr. Zagdjav Deleg, the Deputy Mining minister of Khurelskh`s Cabinet, is becoming the first to take initiative in the Oyu Tolgoi issue.
Published Date:2018-01-09