ULAANBAATAR, December 8. /TASS/. About 1,000 people gathered to protest on the central square in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar on Thursday, the fifth day of protests, a TASS correspondent reported.

This time, horseback riders from various regions of the country joined the rallies. Police officers asked the newcomers to leave as the city’s mayor had banned horseback riders from entering the central square. "We haven’t come here to wreak havoc, we have come to show that the country’s regions support the protest movement. We want to meet with government officials and make our voice heard," the horsemen said. According to them, about two hundred more riders are expected to arrive in the capital from various regions of Mongolia.

The first participants in the horseback rally moved to a nearby park for the time being. Mongolia’s Public Radio reported that law enforcement officers had begun to detain horsemen at the entrances to the city, denying them entry.

A protest rally triggered by dissatisfaction over an investigation into a case on coal exports to China bypassing customs control broke out in the Mongolian capital on December 4. Demonstrators demanded to name the suspects, claiming there were high-ranking officials among them. On December 5, protesters tried to storm the Government Palace. On December 7, the Mongolian prime minister announced the creation of a working group to investigate the case, which will include up to 100 protesters along with government officials.

ION Energy (TSXV: ION), Mongolia’s first lithium brine explorer and developer, said today that it is “extremely pleased” with the drilling results obtained from the recently completed exploration diamond core drilling program at the Urgakh Naran lithium project in Mongolia.

In its press release, ION Energy reported that the company has successfully completed the drilling of three lithological diamond core drill holes for a total depth of 954m.

The company highlighted notable two metre drill core results, including 123m at 278ppm lithium from 122m, with maximum lithium reported at 832ppm over 2m (UNDH-01); 100m at 362ppm lithium from 65m, with maximum lithium at 601ppm over 2m (UNDH-02); and 71.4m at 360ppm lithium from 3.6m with maximum lithium at 911ppm over 2m (UNDH-03).

The company also said it has completed drilling of two hydrological test wells for testing of basin brines, adding that the third test well is currently being completed.

CEO and Director Ali Haji stated, “The company is extremely pleased with the drilling results obtained from the recently completed exploration diamond core drilling program. Results have indicated a lithium pregnant basin with significant potential for insitu brine at relatively shallow depths. The company is now completing its third hydrological test well with brine sampling to commence across all three wells in the coming months.

“The Urgakh Naran Basin is over 17,000 ha in size and is showing the potential to host significant brine accumulations in close proximity to the national electric grid and critical development infrastructure.”

ION Energy is committed to exploring and developing Mongolia’s lithium salars, which includes the Baavhai Uul and Urgakh Naran project. ION indicated that its flagship 81,000+ hectare Baavhai Uul lithium brine project represents the largest and first lithium brine exploration licence awarded in Mongolia.

Minister of Road and Transport Development S. Byambatsogt presented the decisions made at today’s regular meeting of the Cabinet.

He said, “At its meeting today, the Cabinet supported the issue of establishing an agreement with the United States in air transport. With the establishment of the agreement, an opportunity will be opened up to conduct direct flights between Mongolia and the United States after one-year preparatory work is completed within 2023. Thus, it will become possible to conduct regular flights to the United States in 2024.

For Mongolia, the United States is the third most sought travel destination after Beijing and Seoul. In 2019, more than 60 thousand people spent over USD 40 million to travel between the two countries through Beijing and Seoul.

“Establishment of the agreement is believed to serve as an important impetus to increase the number of tourists and decrease the cost of traveling between the two countries”, added the Minister.

The government action plan includes building new energy sources to meet the growing electricity demand. From this perspective, it was decided to make new energy sources available in three main scopes:

To increase and expand the capacity of existing energy sources.

To build new sources with pulverized coal combustion technology.

To make renewable energy sources available.

The construction project of the Tavantolgoi Thermal Power Plant (TPP) with a capacity of 450 MW is one of the significant projects to build new energy sources that are operated with pulverized coal combustion technology. In April 2020, a resolution was issued by the Government that it will finance the project through its own resource. According to the resolution, Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC will allocate 30 percent of the financing through owning shares of the plant and the remaining 70 percent will be financed by a loan through the government’s loan guarantee. In this framework, the government submitted its request for a debt guarantee to the State Great Khural. However, the State Great Khural refused to issue the debt guarantee due to the debt ceiling, stopping the project.

The Minister of Energy, B. Choijilsuren, stated that the Russian side has put forth a proposal to cooperate with Mongolia to continue the project.

Specifically, some Russian commercial banks have expressed their interest in financing the project. According to the Ministry, the tender for Tavantolgoi TPP will be announced before January, and the participants will be selected and contracted by the end of May 2023. It is planned to commence construction in the second half of next year and to be commissioned in the second half of 2026. Furthermore, Minister B. Choijilsuren highlighted that no offtake agreements will be established for this project.

Two days ago, hundreds of demonstrators angered by allegations of corruption linked to Mongolia’s coal trade with China tried to force their way into the State Palace in the capital, demanding dismissals of officials involved in the scandal.

The demonstration of angry Mongolians, mostly youngsters, is continuing for fourth day on Wednesday (7 December) when some of protesters stripped naked in -15 Celsius in Ulaanbaatar city.

Therefore, Mongolian Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene met with protesters in front of State House (parliament house). He vowed to solve the ‘stolen coal’ case and formed a working group including protesters and officials.

L.Oyun-Erdene says ‘ I am grateful to the people who are demanding to reveal the theft of coal, a mining product that is the main component of Mongolia’s economy. Thank you to every citizen who expressed their opinion in the central square today. Fighting coal theft is not easy. I know that the society is being provoked by the real fraudsters who embezzled the bonds issued in the name of the Development Bank. We were able to reveal all this in a short period of time. We will continue to move forward. I will work together with the Government, the Parliament and the President of Mongolia to solve the issue of coal theft and get behind it.

Mining Shared Value, a non-profit initiative of Engineers Without Borders Canada, has announced that twelve mining companies have now adopted the Mining Local Procurement Reporting Mechanism (LPRM), to report on a total of thirty-four mine sites across nineteen countries.

The LPRM is a publicly available framework of twenty-two disclosures, developed by MSV and commissioned by the German development agency GIZ, with support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Growing use of the reporting framework is happening amidst increased focus on local sourcing and supply chain due diligence in the rush for green energy minerals.

Ivanhoe Mines became the first company to implement the LPRM in 2019. Now a total of twelve companies are using it, including Freeport-McMoRan, New Gold, and Lundin Gold.

Solaris Resources is the first exploration company in the world to use the LPRM and reports on its Warintza project in Ecuador.

Earlier this year, Onyen Corp. also announced the addition of the LPRM to its ESG reporting software, offering user companies the ability to report in accordance with the disclosures, while eliminating duplicative reporting and centralizing data collection and management.

The LPRM is designed to promote and standardize information sharing on local procurement at the site level and aims to identify opportunities for improving transparency of spending, as well as policies and systems that support procurement from local suppliers.

As procurement of goods and services represents the largest payment from a mining operation to a host country – often exceeding direct wages and taxes combined – local procurement can be a critical lever for the creation of short and long-term benefits in mining communities, MSZ said in a media release.

“As demand grows for minerals required for the energy transition, mining sector procurement of goods and services has significant potential to drive economic and social impacts for mining host countries, and it can be instrumental in strengthening a company’s social licence to operate”, MSV managing director Jeff Geipel said in the statement.

“The Mining LPRM is a publicly available reporting framework that helps companies refine their approach to local procurement and provides practical information to host country suppliers and other stakeholders,” Geipel said.

The LPRM encourages companies to disclose information on policies and commitments, spending on goods and services sourced from local suppliers, development programs and support made available to local suppliers, as well as supply chain due diligence efforts.