At his annual dinner at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Soros warned that social media platforms were "obstacles to innovation".

He raised concerns about their power to shape people's attentions.

However, he predicted their days were numbered because tax policy and regulation would catch up with them.

Mr Soros also called the Trump administration a "danger to the world", adding that he believed the president would be gone by 2020 "or sooner".

'Lost freedom'
But the outspoken financier reserved his strongest criticism for what he called the "unprecedented and transformative" effects of large internet firms.

"The power to shape people's attention is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few companies," Mr Soros told assembled guests.

Referencing Google and Facebook several times during his speech, he said: "It takes a real effort to assert and defend what John Stuart Mill called 'the freedom of mind'.

"There is a possibility that once lost, people who grow up in the digital age will have difficulty in regaining it."

He cautioned that this would have "far-reaching political consequences", and had already played a large role in the election of Donald Trump.

Facebook declined to comment, while Google did not immediately return a request for comment.

The 87-year-old repeatedly praised EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, whom he said would be the social media companies' "nemesis".

Ms Vestager has become best known for going after US tech giants, slapping charges on Google, Amazon and Apple.

Mr Soros said the EU, which has no internet giants of its own, was best placed to "protect society against them", whereas US regulators, he maintained, were too weak.

"Internet monopolies have neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions," he emphasised.

'Societies in crisis'
The Hungary-born hedge fund manager, who initially became famous for having made $1bn by betting on the devaluation of the pound in 1992, heads several foundations devoted to "defending open societies from their enemies".

Mr Soros, a Holocaust survivor, opened his speech by disclosing that he found the current moment in history "rather painful".

"Open societies are in crisis, and various forms of dictatorships and mafia states, exemplified by Putin's Russia, are on the rise."

But he predicted that Donald Trump, whom he previously branded a "would-be dictator," might not last to the end of his term.

"I expect a Democratic landslide in 2018," Mr Soros asserted.

“The bitcoins mining, which is this accelerated and augmented use of computers to actually determine the value and incentive the functioning of the mechanism, is energy angry,” Lagarde said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.

“And we figure that in 2018, if it continues, that system will actually consume as much electricity as Argentina.”

According to the Bloomberg’s data, cryptocurrency miners used more than 37 gigawatt-hours a day – equivalent to 30 1.2-gigawatt nuclear reactors running at full capacity.

Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index says cryptocurrency mining could power 4,124,115 US households, and the energy consumed can be compared to Iraq’s electricity consumption.

The cryptocurrency network is mostly fueled by coal-fired power plants in China because energy is cheap there, which results “in an extreme carbon footprint for each unique bitcoin transaction,” the website claims.

“In times of climate change and when we look at how much coal is being used in some Chinese provinces to actually mine bitcoin, it’s a big concern,” Lagarde said.

With the upgraded rating, DBM has the opportunity to issue long-term and low-cost financing in the international stock market. A country’s financial system, governance, budget and monetary policy play an important role in determining a nation's credit rating. When a rating changes, international investment expenditure can swing by up to 0.8 percent.

During his attendance, D.Sumiyabazar met with Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Arkady Dvorkovich, exchanging views on fuel supply and geology sector’s cooperation. Minister D.Sumiyabazar put proposals regarding reliable and constant fuel supply and reducing fuel price. In response, Arkady Dvorkovich told that Russian side is ready to render support on the matter. The Mining Minister agreed to hold a meeting with authorities of ‘Rosneft’, Russian Oil Company, on January 29 in Ulaanbaatar.

The same day, Minister D.Sumiyabazar met with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and discussed about bilateral cooperation and mining sector’s outlook. The meeting was followed by another meeting with authorities of ‘Lazard Freres’ financial advisory and asset management firm of France.The firm seeks cooperation with Mongolia for conducting structural changes of state-owned companies operating in mining sector and raising money from international financial market.

M. Unurzul

Tobacco smoking is the main cause of death that is preventable. A study conducted by the Mongolian Health Ministry in 2017 on tobacco use in the country showed that 61.3 percent of teenagers have smoked once or twice. According to a WHO study, Mongolians spend an average of MNT 100 billion on 3.2 billion cigarettes annually.

“The plan is to create a standard for kilobars that can be adopted around the world, delivered anywhere, possibly using blockchain to identify the bars, their origins,” a physical gold trading source said. “Rigid standards and blockchain would bring in people who are worried they could be getting conflict metal.”

The kilobar measure dominates Asian trade as gold contracts on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, Shanghai Futures Exchange, and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing are all in kilobars.

However, lack of transparency about their origin and the absence of a global standard thwart their use on exchanges elsewhere. They cannot be accepted at London Metal Exchange clearing arm LME Clear because they differ from its standard bars which are typically around 400 ounces.

According to sources’ estimates, top consumer China imports about 95 percent of gold in kilobars, while second-largest consumer India imports 80 percent in kilobars. The WGC estimated China’s 2017 gold demand at up to 1,000 tons and India’s at 650 tons.

“The Asian consumer market is in kilobars, it dominates gold trade,” a gold industry source said. “If you want to trade on the LME and you want to lodge your collateral in kilobars in another location, why shouldn’t you be able to? There are vaults all over the world.”

“You can add a lot of information with blockchain, where the gold was mined, where it was refined, serial numbers, who owned it previously. It could bring new demand to the market,” a physical market source said.

Furthermore, environmental and social impact assessments, as well as field research and engineering geology analysis have been completed. The industry experts prioritize research and estimation of a railway project. Therefore, the working group is preparing a detailed study of the project. “Establishment of a complex infrastructure in the east will have a significant impact in the regional development and will provide transit transportation for the two neighbors, remarked Tsengel Bold, CEO of Mongolian Railways state-owned company.

A deposit with around 200-300 million tons of mineral resource is located in the Khuut-Bichigt route. The infrastructure will intensify mineral turnover and will allow Mongolian mining products to be traded in the international markets. Also, the early estimation show that some percentage of freight transports of Russian and PRC in the Trans-Manchuria railways could be transited through Khuut-Bichigt. The Government’s 2016-2020 Action Plan stated to establish Tavantolgoi-Gashuusukhait and Khuut-Bichigt route railroads. The 239 km long Khuut-Bichigt railroad will also provide around 800 workplaces. Although the investment amount is still unknown, the related officials informed that the initial cost will be around USD 1 billion.

Mongolia, Russia and PRC have agreed to establish a trilateral economic corridor within the frames of “Belt and Road” initiative of PRC and “Development Road” initiative of Mongolia. Accordingly, 33 projects will be implemented for the corridor, which will consist of central, western and eastern regional development. Additionally, the related officials and investors of Khuut-Bichigt project have gathered to convene at the Corporate hotel on January 22-23.

Tugsbilig.B

� The Cabinet decided to submit to the Parliament a draft bill on General Program on Funding established between the Government of Mongolia and the Asian Development Bank. Financing of USD 468 million will be spent for diversifying economy, improving business environment, ensuring stability of social protection sector and creating jobs.

� The Cabinet resolved to submit to the Parliament a draft law on Mongolia-Korea intergovernmental general agreement on Issuance of Soft Loan from Economic Development Cooperation Fund in 2017-2019. The soft loan equal to USD 700 million has an annual interest of 0.2 percent and 30 years of repayment term and is to be spent for elimination of air pollution of Ulaanbaatar city.

� The Cabinet decided to set amount of undue tax loss at 0.050 percent a day in cases a tax payer does not pay his/her taxes in scheduled time or tax department and inspectors impose and collect unreasonable or excessive taxes.

� The Cabinet adopted methodology to compute index of provincial development, information required and list of organizations to give information. The index should be computed within the first quarter of the year and announced to public.

� The Cabinet decided to deliver information to National Security Council about condition of crime and law violations related to illegal circulation of narcotic drugs, and psychotropic.

� The Cabinet adopted Requirements and registration rule for citizen and legal body who render consulting service. The rule will set requirements for citizens and legal bodies in construction sector to give professional consulting service and regulate other relations.

In a research report consultants Wood Mackenzie said the combination of scheduled mine closures, top producer Glencore's strategic cuts and the impact of environmental inspections in China has depleted global stocks of concentrate.

According to the report global zinc stockpiles fell by a third in 2017 to 1.8 million tons, equivalent to 47 days of global usage. Exchange stocks halved from 500kt to 250kt (equivalent to just 6 days of global consumption) over the same period.

By the end of the second quarter, there will be less than 40 days’ of stock available for consumers; "a critically low level" according to the authors which should propel prices to $4,000 a tonne in the third quarter of this year.

"As the rapid escalation of the price thus far in 2018 has demonstrated, there is a strong possibility that investor
enthusiasm will pre-empt the tightness in the refined market and the cyclical peak in the price could be higher and sooner than
our base case assumption of a Q1 2019 average of $4,100/t."

Zinc has more than doubled since hitting multi-year lows in January 2016 when top producer Glencore curtailed production to shore up prices.

In December, Glencore said it would restart its Lady Loretta mine in the first half of this year, but added that it still expects zinc output to decrease slightly in 2018 to a shade under 1.1 million tonnes. In 2019, Glencore sees its zinc output creeping back up to 1.16 million tonnes.

Overall global zinc supply is to increase with additional capacity coming online in Australia (MMG's Dugald River project) and South Africa (Vedanta's Gamsberg mine).