Iron ore export increases www.montsame.mn

B.Gangaamaa "Conquers" K2 Mountain www.news.mn

Mongolian mountaineer B.Gangaamaa successfully climbed to the summit of K2, second highest peak in the world after Mount Qomolangma, becoming the first person from the country for the feat.

Top 10 Richest People in Mongolia 2018 Mongolian Billionaires www.eliteshared.com

Here Are the Top 10 Richest People in Mongolia and their Net worth not forgetting their source of wealth. The richest people in Mongolia: How they became Mongolian Billionaires and millionaires. The following Forbes list of Mongolian billionaires is based on an annual assessment of wealth and assets compiled and published by Forbes magazine in 2018. The FORBES List is based on an estimated wealth taking company shares, real estates, art objects or luxury goods such as yachts into consideration.

1. Odjargal Jambaljamts 
Richest man in Mongolia Odjargal Jambaljamts estimated net worth is US $ 2.6 billion and he is ranked at No. 1 in the list of top 10 richest man in Mongolia as appeared in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018. Mr. Odjargal Jambaljamts serves as the Executive Chairman of Mongolian Mining Corporation and has been its Executive Director since May 18, 2010.
From 1989 to 1991, Mr. Jambaljamts was an automation engineer at the Energy Authority of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mr. Jambaljamts has over 14 years of experience in exploration and/or extraction activities

2.Chinbat Lhagva
Chinbat Lhagva estimated net worth is US $ 1.9 billion and he is ranked 2nd in the list of top 10 richest people in Mongolia as appeared in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018. He does not have any political affiliations.
Chinbat L is the General Director Mongolian television and General Director of the Gatsuurt Group. Also, he is a member of the board of Directors of “Mongolian agronomy entrepreneurs association”. He founded the Gurvan Gol JSC, a geological mining company, with his colleagues in 1998, and was a shareholder in the company.

3.Battulga Khaltmaa
Battulga Khaltmaa estimated net worth is US $ 1.5 billion and he is ranked at No. 3 in the list of top 10 richest people in Mongolia as given the impression in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018. Khaltmaagiin Battulga is a Mongolian politician and President of Mongolia.
Battulga Khaltmaa served as Member of the State Great Khural from 2004 to 2016 and Minister of Roads, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development from 2008 to 2012.

4.Nyamtaishir B
Nyamtaishir B has been also listed as one of the wealthiest man in Mongolia as at 2018 due to his massive net worth. Multi Billionaire Nyamtaishir B estimated net worth is US $ 1.4 billion and he is ranked at No. 4 in the list of top 10 richest man in Mongolia as appeared in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018.

5.Batbold Sukhbaatar
Multi Billionaire Batbold Sukhbaatar estimated net worth is US $ 1 billion and he is ranked at No. 5 in the list of top 10 richest man in Mongolia as appeared in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018.
Sükhbaataryn Batbold is a Mongolian politician who was Prime Minister of Mongolia from 2009 to 2012, as well as General Secretary of the Mongolian People’s Party.

6.Bold Luvsandanzan
Bold Luvsandanzan estimated net worth is US $ 800 million and he is ranked at No. 6 in the list of top 10 richest people in Mongolia as appeared in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018.
Bold Luvsandanzan is the chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary friendship group of Mongolia-Switzerland and Vice-Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary friendship group of Mongolia-Japan. Since 2014 Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary friendship group of Mongolia-Germany.

7.Baatarsaikhan Tsagaach
Baatarsaikhan Tsagaach estimated net worth is US $ 800 million and he is ranked at No. 7 in the list of top 10 richest people of Mongolia as given the impression in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018.
Mr. Ts. Baatarsaikhan serves as the President of the Tavan Bogd Group. Mr. Baatarsaikhan is the Founder of Tavan Bogd Trade Co., Ltd. He has been a Director of Khan Bank LLC since March 2009.

8.Boldbaatar Tserenpuntsag
Boldbaatar Tserenpuntsag estimated net worth is US $ 800 million and he is ranked at No. 8 in the list of top 10 richest men in Mongolia as appeared in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018. Mr. Tserenpuntsag earned a master’s degree in Engineering from the Elecrotechnical Institute of Telecommunications in Leningrad, Russia.
Mr. Boldbaatar Tserenpuntsag is the Chairman and Co-Founder at Newcom Group. Prior to founding the firm, Mr. Tserenpuntsag was the First Deputy Director at the Mongolian Telecommunications Authority and a Member of the first Mongolian Parliament which was elected after the 1990 revolution. He also served as the General Director of the Mongolian Telecommunications Company.

9.Batkhuu Gavaa
Batkhuu Gavaa estimated net worth is US $ 700 million and he is ranked at No. 9 in the list of top 10 richest people in Mongolia as given the impression in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018. Batkhuu.G, a former Member of Parliament for the Democratic Party (DP) and his brother Batsaikhan.P own the Media Group LLC with 50:50 shares.
Batkhuu Gavaa holds a Major in engineering and economics. He is a former Member of Parliament, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament, and former Minister of Road, Transport, and Tourism of Mongolia. He is a member of the Democratic Party (DP).

10.Erdenebileg Doljin
Erdenebileg Doljin estimated net worth is US $ 700 million and he is ranked at No. 10 in the list of top 10 richest man in Mongolia as appeared in financial magazines such as Forbes and Bloomberg 2018. Mr. Doljin Erdenebileg has been the Chairman and Director of Trade and Development Bank of Mongolia LLC since December 28, 2006.
Mr. Erdenebileg serves as a Member of the Representative Governing Board of Ulaanbaatar City Bank. He holds a Bachelor’s in Law from the Institute of Law in Mongolia and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Academy of Management in Mongolia.

Irkutsk region's export of chicken eggs to Mongolia almost doubled www.rusexporter.com

For the first five months of 2018 Irkutsk Region has exported to Mongolia chicken eggs valued at $1.8 mln., it is a 57% increase compared to the same period of the last year.

86 percent of active entities in Mongolia have up to 9 employees www.gogo.mn

According to the National Statistical Office’s Social and Economic Situation report, a total of 163,000 entities were registered in the Statistical Business Register as of February 2018.

Mongolia takes steps to boost cashmere production www.news.mn

The Mongolian government launched a four-year programme to boost cashmere and wool industry in February. The initiative aims to increase exports more than fivefold by providing financial support to help domestic firms improve technology and expanding the country’s processing capacity.

HIV Infections Rises to 262 in Mongolia www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of HIV-positive people rose to 262 in Mongolia after seven new cases were registered in the second quarter of this year, the National Statistical Office said in a report Thursday.

Frontclear Facilitates a Landmark Transaction With State Bank Mongolia, EBRD and ING Bank www.ktvn.com

Frontclear arranged and structured a USD 30 million cross-border collateral swap with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), enabling a further repo transaction between the Mongolian State Bank and ING Bank. It is the first time in Mongolia that a repo or collateral swap transaction has been done with local currency collateral cross border and a first such deal involving a commercial bank.

In this transaction, Frontclear borrowed USD 30 million in US Treasury bonds from the EBRD and then on-lent them to the State Bank LLC in Mongolia against Mongolian local currency government bonds in a collateral swap transaction. Frontclear guaranteed the transaction to EBRD. With the US Treasuries in hand, State Bank LLC borrowed funds in a repo transaction with ING Bank N.V. Singapore branch.

Credit risk, legal and operational risks plus wrong way risk concerns, has made it very difficult for Mongolian banks to source hard currency liquidity against local collateral in global capital markets. The landmark transaction made it possible for State Bank LLC to competitively access funding from foreign banks. It also helped clarify certain legal and operational issues related to bond trading in Mongolia, which were mitigated by effective Frontclear deal arranging and structuring.

Both collateral swap transactions were documented under an International Swap and Derivatives Association (ISDA) agreement, whereby Frontclear customized the swap confirmation to legal issues in the Mongolian market. The repo transaction was closed under a Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA). The transaction documents introduced best practice operational and legal concepts, which will be further reviewed in a Frontclear organized Executives' Roundtable in Ulaanbaatar in September 2018.

"We are proud of the catalyst role we have played in originating the structure. The transaction provides a new mechanism for Mongolian banks to utilize local collateral in international capital markets and sets a benchmark for the development of Mongolia's money market going forward." - Andrei Shinkevich, SVP Frontclear

"We expect this transaction to generate positive ramifications for Mongolia as it enabled know-how transfer to the local market and should have a demonstration effect on other potential followers from global financial markets." - Aude Pacatte, Director, Head of Portfolio Management EMEA, EBRD

"State Bank is delighted for successfully executing this inaugural transaction that provides possibilities to practice the financial instrument in line with international best practice and facilitates development of interbank money market in broader perspective in Mongolia." - Chinbat Lkhagvasuren, Director General, Treasury Department, State Bank of Mongolia

"We are proud to have been given the opportunity to play an instrumental role in the further development of the capital market in Mongolia, together with State Bank of Mongolia, Frontclear, and EBRD."- Erik Versavel, ING Mongolia Country Head

About Frontclear

Frontclear is a development finance company focused on catalyzing stable and inclusive interbank markets in emerging and developing countries (EMDC). Frontclear facilitates access by local financial institutions to interbank markets through providing credit guarantees to cover a transacting institution's counterparty credit risk. This on the condition that local currency assets can be used for collateral management purposes. Frontclear's Basel III compliant guarantees specifically cover due payment of the Early Termination Amount under ISDA contracts and corresponding claims under GMRA. The guarantees are in turn counter-guaranteed by KfW, a AAA-development financial institution. The guarantees are complemented by a technical assistance programme (FTAP). FTAP supports targeted and planned interventions in bank and system development, which reduce the operational and country risks obstructing interbank trading. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Dutch development bank FMO, the Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA), the French development bank Proparco, The Currency Exchange Fund (TCX), the UK's Department of International Development (DFID) and the German Ministry of Development Cooperation (BMZ). Frontclear's guarantees are counter-guaranteed by KfW, a AAA-rated German development Bank.

For further information, please visit http://www.frontclear.com

Mongolia could be Rio's copper growth key www.mining-journal.com

Since January last year, JS has flogged $8.5 billion in assets, including the entire coal business. The latest deal was the widely flagged $3.5 billion sale of Rio's post-2022 40% share of production from the Grasberg mine in Indonesia to state-owned interests.
Generally speaking the prices received in the clean-out have been above market expectations, and it has to be said that faced with the prospect of having its 40% Grasberg stake becoming 20% under Indonesia's resource nationalism agenda, taking $3.5 billion off the table was a good outcome,
particularly as the exit from the controversial project boosts Rio's environmental credentials.

As with the previous assets sales, Rio does not need the Grasberg money.
Debt is where it wants it, cashflows are strong, and growth capital expenditure is back from the boom time craziness to levels that are more manageable.
So there is no surprise that every time Rio ticks off a an asset sale there is orgy of speculation about how quickly the excess capital generated can make its way back to shareholders. Fair enough too, given how they missed out during the boom.
But the much bigger question now is does Rio need to make some acquisitions to replenish the silverware cabinet.
Getting out of coal had its virtue benefits in a world that is increasingly active in combating greenhouse emissions. But the exit will leave a big hole in earnings, particularly if currently elevated coking and thermal coal prices persist.
The same goes for the Grasberg exit, post 2022 at any rate. It is the world's second biggest copper mine with credits from gold and molybdenum helping to make it one of the lowest cost. It is getting bigger and better too with its move underground.
Its departure means that a big hole is punched in Rio's copper (and gold) exposure post 2022. Given Rio's copper exposure is already underdone compared with that of BHP Billiton, plugging the post 2022 hole would seem to be a priority.
Dare it be said that without rebuilding the copper position, there is a risk to Rio being over reliant on iron ore and aluminium. After all, Rio has said repeatedly that copper will go in to supply deficit around 2020. Whichever way it is spun, that cannot be said about iron ore and aluminium.
Without the 2022 kicker that was to come from Grasberg, Rio's copper exposure is reduced to a 30% non-managed interest in Escondida (BHP 57.5%), its ageing Kennecott operation, and a long-dated option on the Resolution copper project.
Oyu Tolgoi was left out of the list there because if there is a simple fix to replace the copper lost with the Grasberg departure, then it has to be OT.

The problem with OT is that while Rio runs the show, its exposure is limited to an indirect stake of 33.6% courtesy of its 51% in the Canadian listed Turquoise Hill, the 66% partner with the Mongolian government holding the remaining
34%.
This space is not alone in suggesting that cash freed by the exit from Grasberg position might best be deployed in Rio acquiring the 49% of Turquoise Hill it does not already own for $3.8 billion, which includes a 30% premium.
As it is, there has been some noise from some of the biggest minority shareholders in Turquoise Hill that the company is run as if it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio anyway. While they want greater independence from Rio, that independence can be bought for a 30% premium, which probably has more to do with their agitation than any real governance concerns.
Think of it as an around-about way of inviting Rio to bid.
Rio has been running OT since 2010 and was instrumental in securing the agreements with the Mongolian government which underpin the mine's $5.3 billion expansion by moving underground where most of the value lies.
It will establish OT as one of the world's truly great copper/gold mines.
Production for 2019 is forecast at 156,000t of copper and 256,000oz of gold.
Then the underground kicks in big time, lifting forecast production for 2025 to 622,000 tonnes of copper and 670,000oz of gold.
Between 2022 and 2026 when access to a particularly high-grade zone of the monster orebody is accessed, free cashflow is estimated at $9.5 billion. OT then settles down in to a 500,000t a year copper producer (with gold) for decades to come, with expansion opportunities all the way along.
Having said all that, Mongolia has a habit of throwing up sovereign risk surprises every now and then and the great fear from a Rio and Turquoise Hill perspective is that the State might want more of the action as the move underground is derisked.
Time will tell on that score. What is more certain is that if Rio wants meaningful long-term exposure to the world's next best copper/gold mine, it is best to go in to any future argy-bargy with the State from a 66% partner position, and to do that it needs to buy the minorities out of Turquoise Hill.

Foreign Office Minister Mark Field visits Mongolia www.gov.uk

Minister Field will meet the Foreign Minister, Environment Minister, Finance Minister and Mining Minister to hold discussions on a range of issues, including trade and investment, the environment, the Illegal Wildlife Trade, education, sports links and issues of global concern.