Mr. Denis Valentinovich Manturov expressed his pleasure at meeting President Battulga again and conveyed the greetings of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also appreciated the contribution of President Battulga in the expansion of the ‘Mongolia-Russia Initiative’ event, which is giving stimulus to Mongolia-Russia relations in all levels. The Minister acknowledged the significance of the ‘Mongolia-Russia Initiative’ event consistent with the increasing number of official delegates and representatives of business and cultural spheres attending from Russia, expressing his readiness for further cooperation on specific projects and programs.

For his part, President Battulga mentioned the agreement reached with President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Vladivostok last September on organizing the 2018 ‘Mongolia-Russia Initiative’ event, which will boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The President noted how the participation of more than 60 Russian companies in the event to build business relationships with Mongolian companies, and arrival of the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble to Mongolia after 42 years demonstrates the growth in bilateral trade, economic and cultural ties.

President Battulga also expressed his support towards the establishment of an economic corridor through Mongolia, Russia and China, which Minister Manturov mentioned, saying that the project should be put into action.

Expressing his deep gratitude to the Ambassador on his contribution to the bilateral diplomatic ties and cooperation Minister B.Batzorig emphasized that the Ministry is attaching special attention to expanding and developing ties of the two countries in fields of food, agriculture and light industry.

Ambassador Philip Malone underlined that the two countries have much potential to broaden cooperation in the abovementioned areas and expressed its intend to cooperate in cashmere industry in collaboration with Sustainable Fibre Alliance NGO, funded by the British Government. The NGO intends to oranize a designers’ conference and fair in September, 2018 in London and the Ambassador said the Ministry's support is required to ensure participation of Mongolian part.

The parties agreed to cooperate in formulation of joint program to train personnel and introduce advanced technologies in Mongolia and get acquainted with development and practice of light industry of Great Britain on the spot.

Over 500 international participants are taking part in the forum, including MPs and experts from 96 countries, as well as 19 parliamentary chairmen and 15 vice-chairmen and representatives of 11 international parliamentary associations.

The forum is conducting three thematic sections for discussions on the issues of legislative support of the world economy development in the XXI century, the role of parliaments in strengthening international security and the exchange of best practices of national legislation.

Speaker M.Enkhbold is accompanied by Chairman of Legislative Standing Committee, MP Sh.Radnaased, MP J.Batzandan, MP G.Temuulen and other officials from Mongolian Parliament.

During the event, Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin welcomed Mongolian parliamentarians in the State Duma to host a bilateral meeting. At the meeting parties underlined that the inter-parliamentary collaboration has been successfully growing in the scope of the Strategic Partnership Cooperation and underscored the importance of legislative efforts to deepen trade and economic cooperation.

Moreover, the sides exchanged views on the issues of increasing bilateral trade and economic cooperation. For example, development of the Ulaanbaatar Railway and the boost of "Economic Corridors" project, which has been discussed for several years.

Chairman M.Enkhbold put forwarded to co-celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Battles of Khalkhyn Gol in 2019, which is an important commemoration to strengthen the friendship between our two peoples and to promote the history of pride. He also expressed that Mongolia will support the Russian Federation in the promotion of the International Expo Exhibition to be hosted in 2025 and invited Mr. V.Volodin to conduct an official visit to Mongolia this year.

In the first four months of 2018, Mongolia’s central bank has purchased 3.3 tons of gold, an increase of 8% compared to the same period a year ago.

Mongolia’s long-term trend in gold reserve balance mirrors the growth in foreign exchange reserves – as of April, international currency reserves stood at 2.98 billion USD, up from 1.23 billion USD a year ago.

Despite Mongolia’s ambitions to boost gold reserves, the country’s holdings remain relatively small, even when compared to other developing nations. According to the World Gold Council, as of May, only 6% of the country's total foreign reserves is in gold. The world leader, the U.S., holds 75% of total foreign reserves in gold.

Mongolia is heavily reliant on the mining sector, with mining accounting for 20% of the country’s GDP, according to the World Bank. Providing incentives for miners could potentially raise economic security.

This wouldn’t be the first time the government has set up gold purchase campaigns. In August of last year, the central bank launched a three-month campaign called “Mongol Gold,” with a similar mandate of promoting gold submission to the bank and raising awareness of legal procedures associated with buying gold.

In the past, the major obstacle for individuals selling gold to the government was high transaction fees. Submissions rose significantly after fees were dropped from 68 percent to 2.5 percent.

Challenges surrounding infrastructure remain, as there are no testing facilities in the BoM’s rural branches which are needed to collect gold.

Copper price soars to 3-month highWorkers at the Escondida copper mine in Chile put down quite a marker in the third round of contract negotiations with part-owner and operator BHP.

The union is demanding a one-time bonus equivalent to 4% of dividends distributed to BHP shareholders in 2017.

That works out to about $34,000 per worker. It would be the biggest bonus payout to mineworkers ever in Chile.

The union also wants a wage increase of 5%, which is more than double the inflation rate in the South American nation.

Due to its size, Escondida can on its own change global copper supply dynamics.

BHP, which owns 57.5% of the mine, has spent nearly $8 billion expanding the mine (including a $3.4bn water plant) in the past five years to maintain output above one million tonnes (2018 guidance is 1.18–1.23mt).

That means Escondida is responsible for nearly 5% of the world’s primary copper supply.

Ahead of the copper industry’s annual gathering in Santiago in April, Colin Hamilton of BMO Capital Markets summed it up this way:BHP has spent some $8 billion over five years to maintain output above one million tonnes

“Put in simple terms, at more than 300kt Escondida's planned output recovery in 2018 will be the second largest year on year gain by a single operation in recent copper history, after Las Bambas in 2016.

“To have such reliance on a single operation for copper supply growth, particularly one with a history of output hiccups, clearly comes with some risk.”

Last year’s walkout lasted 43 days and ended only when workers invoked a legal provision that allows them to extend their existing contract by 18 months (to end July).

The 2017 strike at Escondida was the longest in Chile since the 74-day action at state-owned Codelco’s El Teniente mine in 1973, which took place shortly before the military coup that overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende.

The threat of copper supply disruptions due to a slew of labour contract negotiations in top producers Chile and Peru, boosted prices at the beginning of the year.

The majority of those talks quickly ended in deals.

There is little indication of that happening at Escondida.

The agreements gave the Chinese firms some access to users' data to help them build Facebook "experiences" on their own platforms.

Facebook said all the data collected remained on users' phones not servers.

The company is already under scrutiny over how it uses members' information.

Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009 but the company has been trying to find other ways to access the massive potential market.

'Legitimate concerns'
The New York Times reported earlier this week that Facebook had given at least 60 device-makers access to users' data - and that of their Facebook friends - without obtaining explicit consent and that in some cases the details were stored on the firms' own servers.

Facebook rejected claims that this had been a breach of privacy pledges that it had made to its members and a US regulator.

Senator Mark Warner, who sits on the US Senate Intelligence Committee, said news that Huawei was among the companies getting the privileged access to the Facebook data raised "legitimate concerns".

On Tuesday, Facebook responded by saying it "along with many other US tech companies have worked with them [Huawei] and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services onto these phones".

Francisco Varela, vice-president of mobile partnerships for Facebook, said the integrations with Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO and TCL were "controlled from the get go" and that "we approved the Facebook experiences these companies built".

"Given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei's servers," he added.

In 2012, the US House Intelligence Committee warned US companies against dealing with Huawei and another Chinese telecoms firm, ZTE.

A report by the committee asked whether the firms were too close to China's Communist Party and its military. It also suggested their products and services could pose a long-term security threat to the US.

Facebook had already come under fire over its involvement in a scandal involving consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

The firms were at the centre of a dispute over the harvesting and use of personal data - and whether it was used to influence the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election or the UK's referendum on leaving the EU.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in May apologised to EU lawmakers for the company's role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal and for allowing fake news to proliferate on its platform.

Following the announcement by the Mongolian Government that 2018 is officially 'Year of Tourism', active measures have been taken in supporting green-eco tourism. Under the projects, service in restaurants and tourist camps has been improved. As we reported yesterday, a tourist hotline has been sent up providing foreign visitors with an information service, and also the possibility to complain when service standards are not up to scratch. In addition, specific rules and regulations are being developed for nature travellers.

Mongolia is definitely taking improving service standards seriously. One huge area marked for improvement is providing modern toilets to replace the ubiquitous squat loos. The country is also benchmarking best-practice models, such as the eco tourism treks of South Korea's Jeju Island.

In the first quarter of 2018, Mongolia saw 705,000 foreign tourists, up 11 percent from the same period last year, according to the National Statistical Office of Mongolia. Government has a plan to increase to the number to 1 million by 2020.

On June 4, Foreign Ministers held official talks with Minister V.Makei, following a ceremony to lay a wreath at Victory Monument in Minsk. During the official talks, the Ministers expressed their satisfaction with intensifying traditional friendly relations and cooperation between Mongolia and Belarus during recent years and constantly running high-level political talks. They also emphasized an importance of intensifying cooperation in the fields of food, agriculture, light industry, mining, road and transportation and increase exchanges of culture, education and humanitarian sectors in order to enrich bilateral tie with economic content.

Moreover, the dignitaries expressed mutual interest to use thoroughly a potential to cooperate under the Eurasian Economic Union and Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor, alongside the continuation of bilateral collaboration within the framework of the United Nations, OSCE and other international organizations.

As a result, peatlands suffer the same fate. They are also damaged by mining, road construction, and steppe fires. Climate change is making things worse. A weak ecological balance is fracturing. The peatlands are the last fertile pastures in Mongolia. Without disturbance, they absorb the water from the melted snow and the rain that they filter and release into the rivers and lakes.

They prevent soil erosion and maintain the levels of groundwater that sustain crops and forests while avoiding desertification. But the area covered by peat in Mongolia has been reduced by almost half in the last 50 years. This had a dramatic impact on the permafrost: huge frozen lenses left by the ancient glaciations.

When the peat decomposes, the permafrost loses a protective layer that isolates it from the elements and begins to thaw. Currently, Mongolia has about one third less permafrost than just under 50 years ago.

How Mongolia addresses this challenge will be instructive for other countries with peat bogs that are trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to 2008 data compiled by Wetlands International, Mongolia is the seventh largest emitter of CO2 in the world by degrading peatlands.

More than a dozen countries have larger peat areas than Mongolia. According to the organization, global emissions from degraded peatlands are increasing, especially in developing countries.

The fight to save the peatlands in Mongolia will take place in the countryside, as well as in political symposiums and legislatures. The result will shape the future of their pastoralist communities, which, for most of the world, constitute the stereotyped image of the country.

The new Permian coal deposit, now being referred to as BNU South as it is situated about 12km south of the mine’s infrastructure, was uncovered during an exploration program targeting shallow open cut mineable coal within the company’s Mongolian mining licences.

Multi-stage ground geophysics initially defined 5km of Permian target strike for exploration and a phase one drilling program completed 42 polycrystalline diamond (PCD) holes for 6803m.

Reporting to the market today, TerraCom said multiple coal intersections occurred along the 5km of strike, including very thick intersections of up to 122m of total gross coal.

“The large shallow coal intersections in this area are by far the thickest thus far discovered within the company’s licenses in Mongolia,” TerraCom stated.

A phase two exploration drilling program has already begun with the thick intersections being considered a “high priority area”. The program will include both PCD drilling and diamond core drilling.

In addition, TerraCom said work streams have been activated to fast-track the start of mining the BNU South deposit on the assumption that further exploration will confirm the target.

Mining operations
Located in Mongolia’s South Gobi province, the BNU mine produces an estimated 1.5 million tonnes per annum of coal which is then exported to China.

Mining to date has been from the initial three open pits located on the northern side of the Noyon coal basin, although TerraCom has been progressively developing pits along the Noyon basin sub crop.

Given its close proximity to the BNU mine infrastructure, TerraCom believes the BNU South deposit could potentially become part of the BNU operation.

TerraCom also operates the Blair Athol coal mine in Queensland, Australia, which commenced mining operations in August last year and has been forecast to produce 1.9Mt of product in its first full year.

In April, the company completed construction and commissioning of a new train load-out facility, which enabled the cessation of a trucking and is projected to deliver an additional A$20 per tonne improvement in margin.

Showing faith in the company, TerraCom director James Soorley snapped up A$37,000 worth of company shares through an on-market trade last week.

TerraCom shares rose 8.96% to A$0.365 on the BNU South discovery announcement by afternoon trade.