On occasion of 50th anniversary of establishment of relation between Mongolia and Japan, a delegation from Tokushukai Medical Group visited in Ulaanbaatar at invitation of Prime Minister of Mongolia L.Oyun-Erdene. After working at four State Hospitals in Ulaanbaatar, Dr.Shinichi Higashiue, President of the Tokushukai Medical Group expressed his intention of constructing a Cardiology Center in Mongolia to reduce morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, and to strengthen the primary health care system in the country. The Japan group is expected to invest USD 50-60 million for construction of the center.

The Tokushukai Medical Group is leading medical group in Japan, including 71 hospitals nationwide from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

In Mongolia, cardiovascular diseases have been the single biggest cause of mortality, accounting for 34.4% of all deaths in 2018. Tertiary health facilities are overwhelmed with heart disease patients, whereas primary health centers lack the capacities – and sometimes simple yet necessary tools – to provide preventive care for conditions like hypertension and diabetes.

Prime Minister of Mongolia L.Oyun-Erdene received a delegation headed by Moto Hayashi, a member of the House of Representatives of the Japanese Parliament and Chairman of the Japan-Mongolia Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Expressing gratitude to the delegation for paying a visit to Mongolia in a large group on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the Prime Minister noted that cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries has made a valuable contribution to the development and expansion of the relations between Mongolia and Japan. Moreover, the Prime Minister expressed interest in implementing big projects and programs in the next 50 years and further expanding cooperation.

The Prime Minister expressed his deepest condolences over the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while underscoring his valuable contribution made to the development of Mongolia-Japan bilateral relations. He then noted that he will be attending the state funeral for Shinzo Abe which will be held on September 27.

The Prime Minister also expressed his desire to implement a project to extract hydrogen from coal and build a hydrogen power plant, and during his visit to Japan, he expressed his interest in meeting with representatives of companies in this area and exchanging ideas.

For his part, Mr. Moto Hayashi thanked Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene for expressing his solidarity through his attendance at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo-2020 Summer Olympics amid the difficult situation of the pandemic.

The meeting also touched on the expansion of cooperation in the infrastructure, education, and tourism sectors.

On the occasion of the diplomatic anniversary, more than 80 people arrived in Mongolia representing the Japanese House of Representatives, Japan-Mongolia Parliamentary Friendship Group, and the business sector.

Following the meeting, Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene received President of Tokushukai Medical Group Shinichi Higashi.

During the meeting, Mr. Shinichi Higashi expressed his desire to establish a Cardiovascular Center in Mongolia. He also said that he will pay attention to the training of doctors and the exchange of mutual experience.

Tokushukai Medical Group, which is famous in Japan for endoscopic surgery and cardiovascular surgery, donated medical equipment such as hemodialysis machines to our country in the past.

HOHHOT, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has achieved high-quality growth over the past decade, focusing on ecological and green development, according to a press briefing on Monday.

Over the past ten years, Inner Mongolia's GDP increased from 1 trillion yuan (about 146 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012 to more than 2 trillion yuan in 2021, said Sun Shaocheng, Party chief of Inner Mongolia.

Meanwhile, 1.57 million impoverished residents in Inner Mongolia were lifted out of poverty in the past decade. The per capita disposable income of residents in the region increased from 42,000 yuan in 2012 to 85,000 yuan in 2021.

The region had planted about 8.13 million hectares of forests and 19 million hectares of grass during the period amid its sand-control efforts, according to Sun.

The grassland vegetation coverage and forest coverage increased from 40.3 percent and 20.8 percent to 45 percent and 23 percent over the past decade, respectively. As the area of desertification and desertified land continued to decrease, the number of sandstorm days in the region fell from 4.9 days to 0.6 days per year.

Inner Mongolia has made great efforts to develop a modern energy economy during the period, with a total installed power capacity reaching 156 million kilowatts, including 56 million kilowatts from new energy.

Len Collingwood, a clinical nurse specialist in psychotherapy, retired on his 65th birthday. He had made a deal with his wife, Sally: she would train as a yoga teacher and he would “start out as an adventure cyclist”.

Four months later, he set off on a 13,000km cycle ride from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia to Edinburgh, much of it roughly shadowing Marco Polo’s Silk Road. No sooner had he started out than a snowstorm hit. He hid in his tent, wearing every item of clothing he had packed. At -18C it was too cold to venture outside to cook. He survived the next 48 hours by eating a “massive bag of Snickers and Crunchies” his colleagues had given him when he retired.

So it is a surprise to hear Collingwood say that he has never feared for his life. Except occasionally when a car veered too close, that is. Surely there were days on that six-month journey when he couldn’t face the saddle?

“Never. There’s always something to be curious about,” he says. “And I’m very happy in my own company.”

Collingwood has minimised his equipment, often using tips from mountaineers. On very wet or windy nights, he might sleep in a culvert. In 2018 he pedalled solo in a single-speed rickshaw from Edinburgh to Istanbul to earn a place in Guinness World Records. “There are very few records a man over 60 can break,” he says.

He turns 71 this year. As we speak, he is perched on the sea wall in Penzance, Cornwall, about to pedal to Land’s End to begin the 1,407km trip to John o’Groats. It sounds arduous but he insists “it’s not a lot of effort. The gearing is so low, it’s just a matter of spinning the wheels.”

Still, they don’t spin on their own. His daughter – like Sally, a yoga teacher – has suggested weights to maintain muscle mass. He plans to start in the autumn. His son, an ultra-distance cyclist, keeps him up to speed on the latest technology. They each came to cycling independently of one another. “If there is a shared inspiration, it’s the humble bicycle that has the capacity to enable the rider to travel vast distances fast or slow,” Collingwood says.

His parents never cycled. His older sister had a bike that he rode back when the handlebars were higher than his head, always going “a bit further down the road, a bit further”.

But the biggest influence, he thinks, was a Ladybird book on Marco Polo that he borrowed from Everton library when he was six. It was the incongruity of Italian clothes and camels that caught Collingwood’s eye. The Guinness Book of Records, as it was then, was another favourite: “I would go over and over it.”

Collingwood was a precocious reader, but grammar school was not a happy place for him. His family could not afford the uniform and he felt conspicuous.

“I fell in with the rebellious crowd,” he says. At 12, he and his friends bought a motorbike to ride around the fields near his home in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. At 15, he started an apprenticeship in heavy mechanical maintenance. But when he finished, he felt a yearning. “I wanted to do something different,” he says.

The local psychiatric hospital, West Cheshire, was looking for nursing assistants. Spurred on by his reading of RD Laing, Thomas Szasz and David Cooper, Collingwood applied and trained. He spent the next 45 years as a mental health nurse with a specialism in psychotherapy and family therapy. “I’ve always been earnest of purpose. If something is to be done, it is to be done properly.”

The job taught him resilience. “People go forwards and people go backwards. The difficult bit is managing the times when people go backwards,” he says. “Don’t let the moment spoil the whole thing.”

In Mongolia he got a dozen punctures in the space of an hour. But he fixed each one till he was patching the patches.

Collingwood is planning new rides in France next year, and beyond that hopes “to spread my wings further. There is peace on a bicycle,” he says. “The joy is the actual doing of the activity. Going further means you’re just doing more of something you enjoy.”

On August 23, the ‘Milky Way’ Dance Festival was held on the central square of the capital, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and Japan.

For the festival, organized at an initiative of the Honorary Consul of Mongolia in Tokushima Prefecture, Kawauchi Shiro, more than 150 delegates from the Japanese side arrived in Mongolia. More than 500 Mongolian and Japanese dancers participated in the Milky Way festival.

The opening ceremony was attended by Chairman of the State Great Khural G. Zandanshatar, Deputy Mayor of Ulaanbaatar Z. Tumurtumuu, Japanese Ambassador to Mongolia Kobyashi Hiroyuki and other officials.

At the opening, Chairman of the State Great Khural G. Zandanshatar said, “On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, 2022 has been declared the Year of Friendship and Exchanges between Mongolian and Japanese Children and Youth, and we are pleased to jointly organize a wide range of cultural events throughout the year. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Kawauchi Shiro, Honorary Consul of Mongolia in Tokushima, who makes a valuable contribution to strengthening the precious ties between our two countries by organizing the Milky Way Joint Cultural and Art Festival. I am very glad that the festival of friendship that is showing the unique heritage and culture of the two countries is taking place as part of the celebration of historical 50th anniversary.”

Hong Kong (CNN) As US President Joe Biden and top American officials traveled the world this summer, promoting a pledge of hundreds of billions of dollars for poorer countries, a largely unspoken motivation loomed in the background: competition with China.

For nearly a decade, Beijing's sprawling overseas development initiative, known as the Belt and Road, has poured billions of dollars into infrastructure projects each year -- paving highways from Papua New Guinea to Kenya, constructing ports from Sri Lanka to West Africa, and providing power and telecoms infrastructure for people from Latin America to Southeast Asia.

Washington now appears keen to bolster its own role in global infrastructure development as it intensifies its competition with China across the globe.

In June, Biden and leaders from the Group of Seven advanced economies promised to unleash $600 billion in investment -- $200 billion of that from the US alone -- by 2027 to "deliver game-changing projects to close the infrastructure gap" between countries.

This month, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited the South Pacific, promoting a new partnership to bolster support for island nations, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a plan aimed at Africa.

"We've seen the consequences when international infrastructure deals are corrupt and coercive, when they're poorly built or environmentally destructive, when they import or abuse workers, or burden countries with crushing debts," Blinken said during a visit to Pretoria, where he revealed the White House's new "Sub-Saharan Africa Strategy."

"That's why it's so important for countries to have choices, to be able to weigh them transparently, with the input of local communities without pressure or coercion," he said in an apparent reference to common criticisms of Chinese-funded projects.

The challenge from the United States comes at a precarious time for China's Belt and Road. Even as the initiative has had an impact on a number of countries, funding shortfalls and political pushback have stalled certain projects, and there is public concern in some countries over issues like excess debt and China's influence. Accusations that Belt and Road is a broad "debt trap" designed to take control of local infrastructure, while largely dismissed by economists, have sullied the initiative's reputation.

Economic challenges at home and a changing financial environment globally also have the potential to impact how China's lenders and policymakers deploy funds, analysts say.

All this may create an opportunity for Washington to step forward and work with willing partners in need of financing. But major questions hang over the extent to which the US can deliver, both in terms of mobilizing billions and driving infrastructure -- areas in which China has long excelled.

Boom or bust?

Since its official launch in 2013, early in the first term of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, funds under the initiative have powered the construction of bridges, ports, highways, energy and telecoms projects across Asia, Latin America, Africa and parts of Europe.

To do this, China has relied on lending, with capital often coming not only from its development banks but state-run commercial lenders -- a stark difference to the American model that's been largely based on official aid.

On average, during the first five years of the initiative from 2013 to 2017, China spent about $85 billion financing overseas development projects per year, more than twice as much as any other major economy, AidData, a research lab at William & Mary in the US, which tracks this spending from Chinese government institutions and state-owned entities, said in a 2021 report.

And while funding has been welcomed by countries around the world, it has also come with problems.

"We find that 35% of (Belt and Road) projects are suffering from some sort of implementation challenge," said research scientist Ammar A. Malik, who heads AidData's Chinese Development Finance Program. He said those issues include environmental incidents, corruption scandals and labor violations, and the 35% figure refers specifically to projects implemented solely by a Chinese entity.

AidData has also reported on what it terms "hidden debts," referring to cases where the recipients of Chinese loans are entities like private or project companies, not governments themselves, but the terms of the loan require the host government to guarantee it. This can ultimately pass liability to them for repayment if the borrowers fall short, the researchers say.

China has pushed back on assertions of risky lending or environmental issues in its projects, pointing to its "green" initiatives and saying "such allegations do not reflect the whole picture."

Another question concerns the direction of the initiative, especially as China's own economy flags amid a mortgage crisis and Covid-19 lockdowns, while many developing countries are struggling with rising debt and inflation -- making lending a potentially riskier proposition.

Beijing has said it remains dedicated to the initiative, with its top diplomat Yang Jiechi at a trade forum on August 14 calling for Belt and Road to "promote the early recovery and growth of the global economy."

But while tracking investments across a wide range of players, and without a central, public Belt and Road data source, is difficult work, there are signs that China's efforts, especially big-ticket projects, have been slowing in recent years and since the pandemic.

For example, Chinese loans to Africa dropped 77% from $8.2 billion to $1.9 billion from 2019 to 2020, according to data from the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.

"Potential reasons for this decrease include the Covid-19 pandemic's deterioration of economic conditions in host countries and a lack of host country demand due to fiscal constraints and debt issues. Limited travel and suspension of several (Belt and Road) projects may have also contributed to preventing financial deal closing," said data analyst Oyintarelado Moses of the center's Global China Initiative.

"Before the pandemic, Chinese policy bank finance was already on the decline. The pandemic appears to have accelerated this trend," she said, adding Chinese institutions would now "take stock" of their strategies.

More time may be needed to observe whether Belt and Road infrastructure financing has peaked, and to assess the performance of the initiative overall, others say.

"The (initiative) is not even a decade old yet. Labeling it a failure because of delayed or distressed projects would be premature and simplistic, as would deeming it a success for Chinese global influence," said Austin Strange, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Hong Kong.

Build Back Better?

The US is already the world's top donor of aid for developing countries. But whether it can mobilize its private sector and a recently revamped development finance arm, known as the US International Development Finance Corporation, to rival China as an infrastructure financier is another question.

The G7 initiative, originally announced in 2021 under the name Build Back Better World, meanwhile, has gotten off to a slow start, analysts say. The leaders only formally launched the initiative -- now called the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment -- in Germany this summer.

In addition to the US pledge of $200 billion from grants, federal financing, and private sector investments, the White House promised the project would "demonstrate how millions of dollars can mobilize tens or hundreds of millions in further investments and tens or hundreds of millions can mobilize billions."

But unlike Beijing's model, where state-run entities play a key role, the US has no such ability to determine the size and scope of investments made by its private sector, analysts say.

The US also doesn't have the same kind of domestic dynamics, such as excess capacity in the industrial sector, which made the Belt and Road an ideal outlet for the Chinese economy and enabled it to launch projects quickly.

"This is not the first time that expectation has been built, but it's going to be quite challenging to get private companies to finance (projects) because at the end of the day, they're accountable to their shareholders and they want projects that are bankable," said AidData's Malik.

But while US private companies will be looking to return a profit, the plan does have the potential to open up opportunity for the US and partners in developing countries, particularly in certain sectors, analysts say.

One reason is that US appears poised not to compete with China on the kinds of signature big-ticket items like bridges and railroads its known for, or to seek to push countries to choose it or China -- a choice few would likely be willing to make.

Instead, it could use its own model of public-private finance and focus on areas where it may have competitive advantages, analysts say, with Biden laying out energy security and climate resilience, information and communications technology projects, as well as infrastructure that promotes gender equality and strengthens health care systems, as areas of focus.

However, the US and its partners will need to do more than in the past to become "strong alternative sources of investment" chosen by partner governments over China, according to Moses at Boston University, who added US strengths in regulatory standards, transparency and environmental or social safeguards could appeal to some partners.

The US may also need to face perceptions that it retreated from Africa after the end of the Cold War, only to return when there is another great power rivalry at play, according to Christopher Isike, director of the African Center for the Study of the United States at South Africa's University of Pretoria.

"When these initiatives come, like (the US' new "Sub-Saharan Africa Strategy") people are skeptical," he said.

Governments on the continent, however, would welcome more sources of funding to meet shortfalls, and there is a perception that the US is more transparent and it has an advantage when it comes to soft power, according to Isike.

As that great power competition returns to Africa, the question, he said, should not be whether or how countries would choose between the US or China, but if African governments "would be ready to leverage the benefits of having this kind of contest."

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the U.S. State Department Daniel J. Kritenbrink will pay a visit to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from August 23-25.

During the visit, the Assistant Secretary will participate in Mongolia-U.S. annual bilateral consultation meeting. At the meeting, the parties planned to exchange detailed opinions on issues such as strengthening cooperation and strategic partnership based on common interests and values, including strengthening Mongolia's democratic institutions and diversifying the economy.

Xanadu Mines has received Australian Foreign Investment Review Board approval for Chinese mining giant Zijin to acquire shares in the company to develop its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia.

The board’s no-objection notification is the first of three approvals required for Zijin to continue its three-phase investment in Xanadu that was announced in April.

The deal still requires approval from the Chinese Government and Xanadu shareholders in order to be formalised.

However, Xanadu is confident both approvals are on track in addition to funding from the remaining two investment phases for the upcoming December quarter.

The first phase of the deal that has been completed involved Zijin investing $5.6m for a total of 139 million fully paid ordinary shares, giving it a 9.9 per cent minority stake in Xanadu.

At phase two Zijin will invest another $5.7 million to increase its stake to 19.99 per cent.

Through the third phase Zijin will create a 50-50 joint venture with Khuiten Metals, currently wholly owned by Xanadu.

Khuiten owns a 76.5 per cent stake in the Kharmagtai mine.

Zijin plans to acquire the Xanadu shares through its fully owned subsidiary Jinping Mining.

The investment includes US$20 million to fully fund a prefeasibility study and an additional US$15 million to fund continued exploration at Kharmagtai.

After the three phases of investment are completed, Xanadu will retain control and remain the operator of the project with any change of control requiring a post-deal offer from Zijin subject to shareholder approval.

FIRB approval is an important step in finalising our agreement with Zijin, confirming the Australian Government’s approval of the transaction. This brings us one step closer to the funding we need to develop Kharmagtai to a decision to construct and continue to realise its potential.

Xanadu Mines Executive Chairman and Managing Director, Colin Moorhead

Xanadu’s Kharmagtai project has a mineral resource estimate identified at a massive 1.1b tonnes for three million tonnes of contained copper and eight million ounces of gold.

Based on the company’s scoping study predictions for the first five years of production, Kharmagtai shows a diminutive strip ratio of just 0.9, an averaged milled copper grade of 0.29 per cent and the company expects to produce an average of 37,000 tonnes of copper per year.

Earlier this month Xanadu completed metallurgical recoveries of up to 91 per cent gold and 46 per cent copper from preliminary glycine and cyanide leach testing at the project.

The tests were performed on partially oxidised material from surface to 30m depth and returned head grades between 0.52 and 2.25 grams per tonne gold and from 0.12 up to 0.67 per cent copper.

Xanadu says the results show a potential treatment path for about 90 million tonnes of oxidised material treated as waste in the company’s scoping study due to low flotation recovery.

The leach tests aimed to determine metallurgical recovery of gold and copper and gauge the potential of additional glycine to enhance recovery and reduce cyanide consumption.

Xanadu says the results are the first step in evaluating a material uplift opportunity identified in the scoping study to generate additional cash flow by leaching partially oxidised, near-surface material.

The company also fully owns its Red Mountain project in southern Mongolia, where early exploration has defined broad zones of strong quartz stockwork veining and associated high-grade gold mineralisation of about 0.5 to more than 5 grams per tonne gold and 0.3 to 1.5 per cent copper.

Xanadu says it is positioning Kharmagtai as the “Cadia Hill of Mongolia”, a reference to the giant Newcrest Mining-owned copper-gold mine in NSW. Management says Kharmagtai stacks up well against Cadia Hill on strip ratio, scale and copper grade.

Moorhead is no stranger to Newcrest’s operations, having previously risen through the ranks to Executive Manager and been responsible for global exploration and resource development with the company from 2008 to 2015.

Xanadu Mines’ (ASX:XAM) shares have risen 6.25% in morning trade to 3.4c on the news Chinese mining giant Zijin has been approved to invest in the company as it progresses the Kharmagati copper-gold play.

Kharmagati, located in Mongolia, was the subject of much success earlier this month, when Xanadu used a novel downstream separation method to recover 91% of gold in early stage ore tests using technology patented in Western Australia.

Today’s approval from Canberra (to be specific, the FIRB) for Zijin to further invest in Xanadu Mines, picking up a 19.99% shareholding.

Zijin to pick up another 10% stake

In April, the company saw Zijin pick up a 9.98% share in Xanadu through the acquisition of 139m ordinary fully paid shares at 4c for $5.56m.

While a gentle relationship building process remains underway between the relatively new Albanese ALP government, and that of Xi Jinping’s, industrial collaboration between the Australian and Chinese private sectors remains robust as ever through 2022.

Zijin is pouring millions into the copper-gold project, which boasts a strong ESG focus. That focus was what prompted the company to use a novel downstream refining technique that requires less liquid cyanide than usually utilised in gold operations.

Xanadu notes negotiations surrounding the pending acquisition of a 10% stake remain ongoing.

Summary look at Kharmagati

Currently, mineralisation remains open in all directions on-site and ongoing drilling is underway to further define mineral resources.

A four year payback is expected for the mine with initial capital expenditure valued at US$690m for an open pit development and associated processing infrastructure.

The internal rate of return for Kharmagati is tipped at 20% after tax across a thirty year mine life.

Australians in Mongolia

It’s also worth noting that a growing number of Australian-listed companies are operating in Mongolia in recent years.

Xanadu Mines is joined in the jurisdiction (while unrelated) by a CSG energy partnership spearheaded by TMK Energy (ASX:TMK) along with Talon Energy (ASX:TPD).

Jade Gas (ASX:JGH) and Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) both develop similar projects, while Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) and private mining contractor Thiess also operate in the region.

The Australian website for the Mongolian embassy notes over 50 Australian companies operate in Mongolia across all sectors.

The building of positive sentiment in Xanadu following its partnership with Zijin is evident in the company's three month share price performance chart

The building of positive sentiment in Xanadu following its partnership with Zijin is evident in the company's three month share price performance chart

Disclaimer: Market Index helps small-cap ASX listed companies connect with Australian investors through clear and concise articles on key developments. Xanadu Mines was a client at the time of publishing. All coverage contains factual information only and should not be interpreted as an opinion or financial advice.

Jonathon Davidson

Finance Writer

Jonathon is a journalism graduate and avid market watcher with exposure to governance, NGO and mining environments. He was most recently hired as an oil and gas specialist for a trade publication. Email Jon at jon@marketindex.com.au.