The All Injury Frequency Rate personal safety measure was 0.25 per 200,000 hours worked in the third quarter, including operations and the underground project. Maintaining its focus on safety, Oyu Tolgoi invested in 174,179 hours of safety training across its workforce of over 11,000 employees and contractors over the period.

Oyu Tolgoi continued its world class environmental performance, achieving water use performance at 0.406 cubic metres of water per tonne of ore processed, and a recycling rate of 86.5 per cent – the best among its peers in the industry.

Over the quarter, Oyu Tolgoi continued its positive contribution to the Umnugobi region, and Mongolia overall, through tax and other payments, procurement activities and investment in sustainable development projects. National procurement spend reached US$234mn in the third quarter of 2017, tax payments US$120.5mn and, cumulative in-country spend between 2010, when major construction on the mine began, to the end of September 2017 crossed US$6.7bn.

Gobi Oyu Development Support Fund continued to support sustainable development projects in Umnugobi. An expansion of the Khanbogd Heating Plant commenced to further support improvements in facilities and infrastructure in the local community.

Q3’17 Production

During the third quarter, Oyu Tolgoi set three operational records for total material mined, ore treated and average daily concentrator throughput.

In Q3’17, material mined increased 9.0 per cent over Q2’17, and ore treated increased 10.1 per cent over Q2’17. During Q2’17, the concentrator underwent a scheduled maintenance shutdown. Average daily concentrator throughput for Q3’17 of 115,400 tonnes increased 8.9 per cent over Q2’17. Copper production in Q3’17 was essentially flat, compared to Q2’17, while Q3’17 gold production increased 29.2 per cent over Q2’17 due to higher head grades from the medium-grade stockpile and Phase 4A. Higher gold grades during Q3’17 resulted in a 26.1 per cent increase in gold sales compared to Q2’17.

Turquoise Hill expects Oyu Tolgoi to produce 130,000 to 160,000 tonnes of copper and 100,000 to 140,000 ounces of gold in concentrates for 2017. Open-pit operations are expected to mine in Phases 4 and 6 during the year. In addition, stockpiled ore will continue to be processed during 2017.

"We are talking about investments worth several billion dollars," he said. The day before, Dmitriev met the Saudi crown prince to discuss further investment cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

As part of the work on Neom, RDIF plans to attract leading Russian companies working in solar energy, health, artificial intelligence technologies, high-speed transport, and the construction of port infrastructure.

RDIF, which is already an investor in Hyperloop, said the technology can be successfully used in Neom.

According to Dmitriev, Russian companies could also help turn Neom into a hub for the export of Russian agricultural products to the Middle East.

"We believe the opportunity to work with the world's leading technology companies in such an interesting place, with the support of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a very interesting proposal," he said.

The city will be powered entirely by wind and solar energy. Neom, which will focus on food, entertainment, biotechnology, etc., is an attempt by Saudi Arabia to diversify its revenue, which has slumped as oil prices collapsed in 2014.

The 26,500 square km (10,230 square miles) zone will be situated on Saudi Arabia’s border with Jordan and Egypt and will require $500 billion in investment.

The megacity is adjacent to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba and near maritime trade routes that use the Suez Canal.

“Neom is situated on one of the world’s most prominent economic arteries... Its strategic location will also facilitate the zone’s rapid emergence as a global hub that connects Asia, Europe, and Africa,” Prince Mohammed bin Salman said.

China will grant more power to pilot free trade zones and explore the opening of free trade ports, according to a key report delivered last week at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

The ministry should "follow higher standards and push for more comprehensive and deeper opening up," spokesman Gao Feng said at a press conference Thursday.

"The ministry is currently working with Shanghai Municipality and other departments on making the plan [for building free trade ports]," Gao said.

The Shanghai FTZ will build a top-level free trade port and implement trade supervision regulations in accordance with higher standards, according to a document made public in March by the State Council.

The FTZ in East China's Zhejiang province also aims to build a high-standard pilot free trade port to push international commodity trade liberalization with a focus on oil products.

Macro Economic Policy
The Rule of Law and the investment climate
Mining Sector Strategy
Energy Policy
Transport Infrastructure
Finance and Banking Sector

Analysts say they were expecting such a dip following Tuesday’s rally when the red metal touched one-week highs and rose above $7,000 a tonne based on bullish Chinese import data.

In fact, SHFE copper, the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, closed down 1.28 per cent at 54,590 yuan ($8,220.27) per tonne.

The overall drop is also attributable to investors getting calmer once China's National Communist Party Congress concluded with the announcement that President Xi Jinping will remain in power and few immediate changes should take place in the realm of economic policy.

Dragging on prices were also data from Chilean mining association Sonami. According to the organization, the 2018 copper output from the South American country will rise 7 per cent year-over-year.

The firm will change its registered business name to “Golden Arches (China) Co Ltd”, a spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters on Thursday, adding though that its brand name in China - a transliteration of McDonald’s - would be unchanged.

The shift comes after the chain agreed earlier in the year to sell most of its China and Hong Kong business to CITIC Ltd (0267.HK) and Carlyle Group (CG.O). The business plans to nearly double the number of its outlets in mainland China to 4,500 by 2022.

“It will still be clearly ‘McDonald‘s’ when diners come to our stores,” the chain said on its official China microblog.

“Our restaurant name will remain the same, the change is only at business license level,” spokeswoman Regina Hui added in emailed comments to Reuters. She declined to comment further on the reason for the change.

McDonald’s in China and Hong Kong is 52 percent owned by CITIC, while Carlyle has a 28 percent stake. McDonald’s itself retains a 20 percent interest in the business.

The structure is aimed at improving sales at existing stores and expanding outlets. Fast-food firms including McDonald’s and rival Yum China’s (YUMC.N) KFC are bouncing back from a series of food-supply scandals in China that had dented performance.

McDonald’s reported robust sales on Tuesday, including better-than-expected growth in the United States and strong performances in Canada, Britain and China.

On the secondary market for government securities, 137,974 bonds worth MNT13.6 billion were traded.

The MSE ALL Index decrease 0.34 percent to stand at 1,140.82. The MSE market cap stands at MNT 2,223,658,418,161.

On October 24, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Budget discussed a draft amendment to the law on the 2017 Budget and Finance Minister Ch.Khurelbaatar said MNT 55 billion will be required for the allowance.

“Salary and premium of state servants cannot be raised until 2019 according to an agreement with the IMF. However we reached to agreement with the IMF on the single-benefit allowance allocation as state servants salary has not been raised since 2014, while the inflation rate has grown up drastically. We intend to hold talks further with the IMF on state servants’ salary and premium”.