Mongolia held a ceremony on Friday to reward the winners of a national alphabet writing contest, a move to introduce and promote the country's traditional language.

The annual contest this year saw around 50 first-class traditional Mongolian script writers among over 1,100 participants across the Asian country.

The traditional Mongolian script, which is written vertically, was the most widespread until the introduction of the Cyrillic script in the 1940s.

In 2020, the Mongolian government announced plans to use the traditional script alongside the Cyrillic script in official documents and legal papers from 2025.

Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, culture and linguistics experts, domestic and foreign experts in the traditional Mongolian script also attended the award ceremony.

What initially began last month as a backlash against an entrenched “coal mafia” has snowballed into a trenchant critique of Mongolia’s inability (and unwillingness) to provide a better future for its country’s youth. Corruption revelations involving the state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi (E..) mining company have sparked enormous protests in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, with protestors telling current affairs magazine The Diplomat that suffocating air pollution, burdensome taxes, and humiliating unemployment are driving Mongolians to the brink of despair. While mining magnates steal millions without repercussions, highly skilled and multilingual graduates have been forced to juggle three dead-end jobs to survive.

Mongolia’s woes date back to the early nineties. 2019-2020 Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting fellow Branko Marcetic showed that American politicians and senators tied to think-tanks like the International Republican Institute spent years and millions of dollars propelling right-wing libertarians into power following communism’s collapse. Once the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (M.P.P.) had been beaten in the polls, the newly-instated Democratic Union Coalition (D.U.C.) tanked the economy, dropped price controls, slashed pensions, cut taxes, gutted social welfare, and halved the number of government ministries.

This neoliberal onslaught had predictable consequences. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that a third of the Mongolian population ranked below nutritional starvation levels under D.U.C. misrule. Unemployment skyrocketed to over 20% and incomes plummeted by 30% in 1997 alone. Mongolian society has yet to recover.

A scramble for Mongolia’s mineral resources erupted after the D.U.C. passed foreign investment legislation. According to investigator Keith Harmon Snow, companies like Centerra Gold, Xanadu, and Cold Gold Mongolia acquired extensive petroleum and mining concessions. Herdsmen and fragile ecosystems paid a terrible price for this corporate conquest. Local officials, eager to pocket money on the side, looked the other way as mining conglomerates rode roughshod over threadbare environmental protection laws.

The results speak for themselves. National Geographic said that unregulated hydraulic mining drained 300 lakes and cut off around 1,500 rivers and creeks. Freshwater contamination introduced liver diseases and cancers into dozens of local children. Herds grazing near toxic uranium mines have allegedly given birth to deformed offspring – a disturbing possibility, which the State Veterinary and Animal Breeding Agency has desperately tried to conceal.

In addition, mining communities deep in the Gobi Desert are hotbeds of crime, alcohol-fuelled debauchery, human trafficking, prostitution, S.T.I.s, and domestic abuse. A damning study published by the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining in 2014 found that sex-based violence is quite common in the Tavan Tolgoi and Oyu Tolgoi mines. Policemen spend entire days responding to phone calls about drunken spouses threatening to beat their partners. Makeshift hotels are no different to brothels; stories abound about cleaners finding women naked and weeping. Peer pressure ensures that many rapes go unreported.

Nomads expelled from ancestral lands have no choice but to eke out a dystopian existence in Ulaanbaatar’s overcrowded and sprawling slums. Harmon Snow noted that grave robbery is a popular activity: ancient tombs filled with hidden treasures, shiny trinkets, and beautiful artefacts are the urban poor’s gold mines. One woman, a college graduate, told the New York Times that she spends her days scavenging through piles of decaying rubbish in search of scrap metal to sell for food. Like many Mongolians, her ambitions have been killed dead by a chronic housing crisis. It’s no wonder that her countrymen have been taking to the streets with greater frequency and fury.

Moreover, most Mongolians want no part in the new cold war brewing between Washington and Beijing – despite the U.S. Army’s best efforts to mould the Mongolian armed forces into a pawn that could destabilize China’s northern borders. Journalist Robert Kaplan wrote that when he befriended Colonel Tom Wilhelm in 2004, the Colonel’s mission in Ulaanbatar was “to make the descendants of Genghis Khan the ‘peacekeeping Gurkhas’ of the American Empire.” Nearly two decades later, this objective has been realized. Mongolian troops regularly participate in training exercises alongside N.A.T.O. allies and mainly rely on U.S.-inspired tactical and field operation manuals. In 2011, Admiral Robert Willard assured the United States Congress that Ulaanbaatar was now a reliable partner and staunch supporter of American interests in the Indo-Pacific.

Should tensions between Washington and Beijing persist, the U.S. may use Mongolia as a launchpad to covertly inflame nationalist sentiments and to unleash turmoil within the province of Inner Mongolia in China, despite Mongolians’ overall weariness. David Sneath, a social anthropology professor at Cambridge who specializes in the political economy and post-socialist transformation of Mongolia, says that multiple organizations dedicated to the unification of “Southern Mongolia” with Mongolia proper are active in the United States. The New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre, for example, compares Beijing’s presence in Inner Mongolia to a military occupation. Activist groups like the Inner Mongolian People’s Party criticise Han Chinese colonialism and hold Beijing responsible for “the policy and practice of genocide” in the region, while American-owned outlets like Radio Free Asia already compare Beijing’s heavy-handed language restrictions in Inner Mongolia to an ongoing cultural genocide.

Already facing sporadically violent outbursts of Uyghur and Tibetan secessionism from within, not to mention the 400 U.S. Army land and sea bases surrounding Chinese territory from without, journalist John Pilger grimly predicts that the slightest hint of foreign meddling in Inner Mongolia will drive Mongolia itself to react with extreme prejudice.

Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in the late sixties and seventies undoubtedly caused immense harm to China’s Mongolian minority, and Beijing has yet to fully atone for this egregious record. However, the West’s cynical weaponization of legitimate Mongolian grievances will lead to further bloodshed in the long run. This incendiary rhetoric, reliant on insufficient evidence and severely lacking in nuanced analysis, will only exacerbate Beijing’s siege mentality, and like their parents and grandparents before them, ordinary Mongolians will end up first in the firing line. A protracted proxy war in Mongolia is a frightening possibility – and must be averted at all costs.

If Mongolia hopes to avoid Ukraine’s fate, Ulaanbaatar should seriously consider asserting its neutrality and sign a nonalignment treaty with the United States, Russia, and China. Ideally, President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh would pledge to completely demilitarize Mongolia in return for guarantees that American, Chinese, and Russian military personnel, advisors, and hardware will henceforth be prohibited from setting foot on Mongolian soil. Lawmakers could look to Austria’s State Treaty for inspiration.

Finally, what can be done to tackle endemic corruption and to revitalize Mongolia’s fledgling economic sovereignty? For starters, N.G.O.s must stop neutralizing indigenous protest movements. Sociologist Shelley Feldman explains that western N.G.O.s in the developing world tend to stymie effective forms of protest (such as strikes, boycotts, and rallies), instead speaking on behalf of vulnerable communities in a manner unlikely to ruffle gilded feathers in state institutions or multinational boardrooms. These N.G.O.s can also represent the agendas of wealthy donors far removed from living conditions, first-hand experience, and events on the ground. This is most definitely the case in Mongolia. Nomads banished into crumbling shantytowns, shorn of their traditional lifestyles and herds, are not being heard.

Mass demonstrations, encompassing the entirety of Mongolian society, can trigger systemic reform. The Mongolian people cannot afford to be cowed or divided: they face a litany of truly formidable opponents. Policemen and politicians are rumoured to let loose Neo-Nazi thugs to incite riots which then justify widespread crackdowns. Activists endure surveillance, harassment, torture, secret trials, and little to no legal representation. Mining companies employ paramilitary security guards to patrol their fiefdoms and to dissuade anyone from resisting ecocidal crimes. Only sustained civil disobedience on a gargantuan scale will bring about fundamental change to a fundamentally rotten status quo.

Author

Jean-Philippe Stone

Jean-Philippe recently graduated with a PhD in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He has a great interest in international relations, conflict resolution, human rights, and peacekeeping.

The organization’s plans for closure include funding for WSC’s work to protect a cherished and vulnerable wild salmonid.

For decades, The Taimen Fund has worked to build scientific programming and partner networks to protect and conserve taimen in Mongolia.

Taimen, a freshwater apex predator and the largest member of the salmonid family, are increasingly imperiled across their range—a vast area of Eurasia that comprises one-eighth of the world’s land surface. Found in remote rivers from Mongolia to the Korean peninsula and the Russian Far East, these resident wild fish can live over 30 years and reach 6 feet in length (and over 100 pounds in weight) given the right conditions.

Taimen are a prized species for anglers as well as scientists hoping to better understand these elusive creatures—and how to save them.

In Mongolia, The Taimen Fund (previously known as the Tributary Fund) has long worked at the nexus of taimen rivers, stunningly rugged landscapes, and ecotourism. In the process, The Taimen Fund has set an example for taimen conservation in Mongolia’s Eg/Ur watershed that unites anglers and scientists, tourism professionals and community members.

The Taimen Fund’s River Keeper Program provides a vehicle for engaging local communities in species conservation, while its commissioned research has expanded the body of scientific knowledge on taimen food webs, life history, and genetics. Under the leadership of long-time Executive Director Charlie Conn, The Taimen Fund has established an outreach model for domestic and visiting anglers that can inform conservation work in other taimen watersheds throughout the Western Pacific.

Now, The Taimen Fund hands its work to Wild Salmon Center and its International Taimen Initiative. Late last year, The Taimen Fund’s Board of Directors announced the transfer of remaining funds to WSC following extensive discussions with a number of organizations in the space.

The board’s decision to pass the torch comes in recognition of Wild Salmon Center’s leading role in global efforts to protect and conserve wild salmonids—including its growing research program focused on freshwater and sea-run taimen across the Western Pacific.

The Taimen Fund’s decision to hand its work to Wild Salmon Center and its International Taimen Initiative comes in recognition of WSC’s leading role in global efforts to protect and conserve wild salmonids.

Mongolia will play a central role in the work of the International Taimen Initiative, says Wild Salmon Center Science Director Dr. Matt Sloat, a field researcher in several research projects coordinated by The Taimen Fund.

Mongolia is of keen interest to conservation scientists, says Dr. Sloat, given the nation’s genetically unique and relatively robust taimen populations. Taimen are a key indicator of river health, but a lack of comprehensive data on taimen has historically complicated efforts to protect the species, says Dr. Sloat.

Today, taimen are in rapid decline due to poaching, habitat destruction, and the accelerating impacts of climate change—making the need to understand and protect this keystone species more urgent than ever.

“Mongolia remains one of the last, best taimen sanctuaries,” Dr. Sloat says. “To safeguard these populations across their vast range, we need to know more about their responses to a rapidly changing environment.”

“Mongolia remains one of the last, best taimen sanctuaries.”

WSC Science Director Dr. Matt Sloat

The Taimen Fund’s financial transfer to Wild Salmon Center will be used as seed money to further develop a locally-driven and committed taimen conservation program in Mongolia, while advancing the body of scientific research available to conservationists worldwide. Wild Salmon Center will also ensure that The Taimen Fund ’s partner and donor networks can continue to grow with an organization similarly committed to both science and the growth of responsible ecotourism that supports local communities.

“Wild Salmon Center has led the conservation of wild Pacific salmonids for three decades and counting,” says Maruisz Wroblewski, Wild Salmon Center Western Pacific Program Director. “As The Taimen Fund closes its final chapter, we look forward to expanding the important work of protecting Mongolia’s taimen through science, data, and the support of wild salmon champions everywhere.”

“As The Taimen Fund closes its final chapter, we look forward to expanding the important work of protecting Mongolia’s taimen through science, data, and the support of wild salmon champions everywhere.”

WSC Western Pacific Program Director Mariusz Wroblewski

Coal production of Mongolia came in at 36.96 million tonnes in 2022, rising 22.74% from 2021, showed data from the National Statistical Office of Mongolia.

In December last year, the country's coal production rose for eighth consecutive month to 6.68 million tonnes, surging 170.01% year on year and up 18.21% month on month.

Mongolia's iron ore production was 247,400 tonnes in December, down 68.95% on the year and 59.19% on the month.

Iron sand output was 159,100 tonnes in December, down 71.23% year on year and 68.12% from November, while iron concentrate production was 88,300 tonnes, slumping 63.8% from a year ago and 17.63% month on month.

Production of iron ore in Mongolia totaled 9.2 million tonnes in 2022, down 28.77% year on year.

Iron sand output was 7.47 million tonnes last year, down 18.6% year on year, and iron concentrate production was 1.73 million tonnes, down 53.72%.

(Writing by Rebecca Liu Editing by Tammy Yang)

For any questions, please contact us by inquiry@fwenergy.com or +86-351-7219322.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, 3.9 thousand foreign citizens from 95 foreign countries were working in Mongolia with labor contract with purpose of earning pay or profit or voluntarily without purpose of earning wage and income.

The number of foreign workers decreased by 1.7 thousand (29.8%) from the same period of the previous year and by 3.1 thousand (43.9%) to compared with the previous quarter. In terms of gender of all foreign workers with labor contract in Mongolia, 3.2 thousand (81.3%) were male and 0.7 thousand (18.7%) were female.

In terms of country of all foreign workers in Mongolia, 35.2% is from People’s Republic of China, 8.5% is from Russian Federation, 7.8% is from Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 6.2% is from Republic of Korea, 6.0% is from United States of America, 5.1% is from Republic of the Philippines, 4.1% is from Republic of South Africa, 4.1% is from Commonwealth of Australia, 3.8% is from Republic of India and remaining 19.2% is from other countries.

In terms of the occupation of foreign workers, 2.1 thousand (52.3%) were professionals, 611 (15.5%) were technicians and associate professionals, 556 (14.1%) were managers, 344 (8.7%) were craft and related trades workers, 200 (5.1%) were plant and machine operators, and assemblers, 117 (3.0%) were elementary occupations, 31 (0.8%) were clerical support workers, 22 (0.6%) were services and sales workers.

Source: National Statistical Office

In the rush of the 2000s commodities boom, the world’s biggest miners earned a reputation as swashbuckling dealmakers, taking on rivals in an onslaught of hostile offers, massive mergers and vicious bidding wars.

Then it all fell apart. A series of disastrous transactions meant balance sheets got shredded, bosses got fired and investors were furious. And so, for the past decade, miners have focused on mining and the mega deals mostly dried up.

But now their penitence is over.

Across the mining world, the appetite for large, transformational mergers and acquisitions has returned, based on multiple conversations with executives at large producers and bankers who advise them. The industry is flush with cash after last year’s record profits, while boards and managers believe they have the support of key investors after promising to avoid the reckless overspending of the last cycle.

No. 1 producer BHP Group is interested in even bigger deals after announcing a $6.4 billion copper purchase last month. Rival Rio Tinto Group is actively looking for lithium acquisitions. Mining and trading giant Glencore Plc is focused on “strategic” opportunities that build on existing connections, its chief executive said last month, while Saudi Arabia’s state mining company last week announced a new venture to invest in overseas assets.

The mining sector is also in the middle of its biggest strategic pivot since the China-led supercycle at the start of this century. The largest producers are at various stages of exiting or winding down fossil fuel operations, while expanding in commodities such as copper, nickel and lithium that will be central to decarbonizing the global economy.

BHP and Rio already got the ball rolling last year, both announcing their biggest deals in years to add more copper.

BHP executives believe the agreement to buy OZ Minerals Ltd. has reestablished its credentials among shareholders — proving the company can get a deal done without overpaying — and paved the way for even larger transactions.

The biggest miner had already expanded its dealmaking team in London and was interested in pursuing a transformational deal, Bloomberg reported last year. The company has recently exited oil and gas and vowed to end thermal coal mining by the end of the decade. To replace those businesses, it’s looking to expand in copper and nickel and grow a fertilizer business.

BHP would be interested in the possibility of deals at the right price with companies such as Canadian fertilizer producer Nutrien Ltd. and US copper giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc., according to some of the people.

Nutrien’s mines and infrastructure surround BHP’s Jansen project — it has long been seen as a natural fit and the companies held talks about a potential partnership two years ago.

Freeport is the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, at a time when the world’s biggest mining companies are all pushing to expand production.

Another large copper producer — Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd. — is controlled through a dual-class share structure by the Keevil family, but could make an appealing target for one of the big miners if the family were willing to sell or merge part of the business.

The renewed focus on dealmaking comes as the miners themselves are receiving increased attention from both governments and investors, after the uncertainties created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine helped spur worries about security of supply, driving up commodity prices. Metal markets are tight, with above-ground supplies for several at the tightest in recent history, while China’s reopening from Covid-19 lockdowns is threatening to jolt global demand. Over the longer term, the global drive to decarbonize will be dependent on an ever-increasing supply of natural resources.

Yet the rich valuations, with many miners trading at or near records, could also put a damper on dealmaking unless a wider global recession leads to lower commodity and equity prices. The big producers are also continuing efforts to refine their existing asset portfolios at the same time as they seek growth.

Most of the major miners are also keen to grow output by expanding existing mines or though exploration and building new ones. The industry has been warning for years that there aren’t enough copper projects to meet future demand, and big deals often don’t bring on new production unless fresh capital can be deployed.

Like BHP, Rio Tinto made a big purchase last year, taking full control of Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. in a $3.2 billion deal. The takeover was messy, with a vote postponed three times as Rio sought to win support from dissident shareholders. However, executives believe it showed investors that Rio can hold its nerve to resist the reckless spending that characterized its past dealmaking.

New Chairman Dominic Barton said at a conference in October that he believed the company had missed opportunities in recent years, in part because of concerns about investors’ reaction because of previous missteps.

Rio’s dealmaking focus has now shifted to lithium. The company has asked the biggest investment banks for pitches on lithium miners and is actively looking for deals.

Glencore, for so long the most aggressive dealmaker in the sector, has been quiet in recent years, instead choosing to sell many of its smaller assets.

Speaking to investors last month, CEO Gary Nagle emphasized that its focus would be on targets where it had existing relationships or shareholdings, or assets that were nearby its existing operations.

“These will be ones that are strategic for Glencore, where Glencore has some sort of strategic advantage, whether it be because we are — have existing shareholding, whether we have existing partnerships with the current owners,” Nagle said. “These will be very strategic M&A opportunities and not simple highest bid wins.”

One area where Glencore sees opportunities is aluminum, which the commodities trader buys and sells for others but does not produce itself. The company has looked in the past at a deal to buy US producer Alcoa Corp. Last year, it held discussions with Noble Group to buy Jamaican alumina refinery Jamalco, but the talks fell apart, people familiar with the matter said.

Still, perhaps the most pressing item on Glencore’s to-do list is to decide the future of its Viterra agriculture business. The company’s options are to merge the business with a rival, sell a stake or an initial public offering.

The large, established producers aren’t the only ones looking for deals. State-backed Saudi Arabian Mining Co., or Maaden, announced a plan last week for a company that will buy minority stakes in international mining assets.

Maaden brings the financial muscle of its biggest shareholder, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which is also a partner in the new investment venture and was among the interested buyers of a minority stake in Vale SA’s nickel and copper assets.

Most of the major miners are also keen to grow output by expanding existing mines or though exploration and building new ones. The industry has been warning for years that there aren’t enough copper projects to meet expended demand in the future, and big deals often don’t bring on new production unless fresh capital can be deployed.

“A lot of these guys don’t have much growth and deals are a way to address that,” said Liberum analyst Ben Davis. “The size perspective is key though. It’s going to be hard to do the mega one.”

(By Thomas Biesheuvel, Dinesh Nair and Jack Farchy, with assistance from Archie Hunter, Annie Lee, Jacob Lorinc and Joe Deaux)

Mongolia's coal exports came in at 31.69 million tonnes in 2022, surging 101.72% or 15.98 million tonnes year on year. The export value jumped 134.99% from the year prior to $6.50 billion, showed data from the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA).

MCGA didn't release the specific figure for December, and Sxcoal calculated the shipments at 4.58 million tonnes based on the overall exports published by the administration.

The volume surged 746.57% or 4.04 million tonnes year on year and increased 14.50% or 579,900 tonnes month on month, data showed.

In December, the export amounts totaled $756 million, with the average price calculated at $165.12/t, down $141.50/t year on year but up $8.65/t month on month.

Mongolia exported 29.77 million tonnes of coal to China in 2022, soaring 104.50% year on year, taking up 94% of the total.

In December, exports to China rocketed 795.61% year on year and climbed by 15.81% month on month to 4.40 million tonnes, taking up 96% of the total. The exports were worth $723 million, with an average price of $164.24/t, down $146.17/t year on year but up $9.95/t month on month.

Mongolia's exports of bituminous coal rose 102.34% year on year to 31.36 million tonnes last year; the volume of anthracite was 124,800 tonnes, up 167.12% from a year ago; and other coal exports gained 23.03% from the year prior to 199,400 tonnes.

In December, Mongolia's bituminous coal exports stood at 4.51 million tonnes, jumping 740.76% year on year and climbing 13.49% month on month; it did not export any anthracite, compared with 4,300 tonnes in the year-ago month; other coal exports were 67,900 tonnes, skyrocketing 177.36% from the month-ago level and compared with zero shipment in the same month in the preceding year.

(Writing by Emma Yang Editing by Harry Huo)

For any questions, please contact us by inquiry@fwenergy.com or +86-351-7219322.

On January 17, 2023, Foreign Minister Qin Gang had a phone call at request with Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg.

Qin Gang expressed that under the strategic guidance of the heads of state of both countries and the joint efforts of two sides, China-Mongolia relations have maintained a sound development momentum, with practical cooperation yielding fruitful outcomes and two-way trade registering a record high. The two peoples have also joined hands in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, gifting one another with sheep and tea. To maintain, consolidate and further develop China-Mongolia relations is the strategic choice of both sides. China is willing to maintain close exchanges with Mongolia at all levels and deepen cooperation in various fields, so as to make new progress in building a community with a shared future for the two countries.

Qin Gang said that China has recently improved and re-calibrated its prevention and control measures in light of the changing situation of the pandemic, including introducing a new entry and exit management policy aimed at facilitating people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. China appreciates Mongolia's science-based and objective stand and its support for normal people-to-people exchange between the two countries.

Battsetseg said as permanent neighbors connected by mountains and rivers, Mongolia and China are exemplary partners for cooperation in the region and good brothers fighting the pandemic with concerted efforts. Mongolia will, as always, stick to the one-China principle and is willing to strengthen high-level exchanges and deepen pragmatic cooperation with China, so as to make positive contributions to regional and international peace and stability and take the Mongolia-China comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level.

The two foreign ministers exchanged their New Year greetings as well.