ION Energy Limited has reported a significant new brine discovery at its Urgakh Naran lithium project in Mongolia.

The brine sample, which was collected at surface from a shallow pool, assayed 918 mg/L lithium – the highest-grade lithium brine known to have been collected in Mongolia, according to Toronto-based ION.

In a statement, ION Energy CEO Ali Haji said: "These exceptional early results are extremely exciting for all stakeholders, they reinforce the company view that high quality lithium brines could be discovered at the Urgakh Naran lithium project."

“We anticipate many more positive updates to the market in the coming months as exploration is ramped up over summer. ION has an active and expanded exploration team on site at Urgakh Naran and exploration is ongoing," he added.

The sample was obtained from a surface evaporation pond indicative of lithium brine potential at depth, ION told investors, adding that the assay result may not be indicative of lithium grade at depth due to evaporation effects, but is “highly encouraging”.

The firm is planning to sink a series of targeted holes to test brine potential at depth upon completion of the current geophysical and shallow auger hole program.

ION has now completed all 72 auger drill holes for a total of 820.5 metres and 427 geochemical samples, including brine samples.

The over 29,000 hectare Urgakh Naran is a highly prospective lithium brine license in Mongolia’s Dorngovi province.

Today on May 11, the Cabinet approved the new organizational structure of ‘Erdenes Mongol’ LLC.

During the meeting, corresponding officials were tasked to pay attention to making the company’s structure small yet skilled and take the appropriate measures to define the respective roles of each department and unit, improve the state-owned company’s financial discipline and focus on efficient operations, and enhance correlation between the operations of subsidiaries and project units.

Currently, ‘Erdenes Mongol’ LLC ensures government involvement in the operations being carried out at 5 out of 16 strategically important deposits, which include putting the deposits into economic circulation. The company has three joint stock companies, 10 subsidiaries and affiliates, three project units, and an operator company.

For Ulaanbaatar city, where more than 60 percent of the population lives in ger areas, redevelopment of ger areas and building apartments should be prioritized. A project to construct apartments in ger areas of Ulaanbaatar kicked off in 2011. Since then, more than 15,000 apartments have been commissioned under the project. From this year, ger area redevelopment will be intensified and apartments for 4,500-6,000 households are planned to be built.

The quality of housing policy is one of the main indicators of the development of any city. Proper housing policy provides many benefits and gives solutions to the problems such as decentralization, congestion, and poverty.

Governor of the capital city and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar D.Sumiyabazar: “In the socialist era, green space and utilities per capita were all up to standard for urban development and planning. Since the 1990s, this policy has been lost, and the population of the capital city, which was planned to have a population of 500,000, has tripled to 1.6 million. The annual growth of the capital city’s population is 75,000.

We are working to develop Ulaanbaatar into a multi-centered city, properly plan population density, and reduce congestion. In order to become a multi-centered city, we have developed a policy to divide the city into sub-centers and develop it based on trade, services, and businesses. Unfortunately, lack of funding slows down development, delays the process, and in the meantime, public confidence declines. Therefore, one of my main tasks as the Mayor in 2020-2024 is to strengthen the housing policy.

Infrastructure is the lifeblood of ger area redevelopment and housing construction. In the past, a number of projects to expand infrastructure to ger areas have been delayed due to insufficient budget. However, starting this year, MNT 30 billion per year is included in the budget to expand ger area infrastructure and create conditions for the companies operating in this field to shorten the project implementation period. In addition, the commissioning of six sub-centers in the capital city will be a major impetus for the intensification of housing construction”.

B.Sukhbaatar: Over 80 percent of ger area residents expressed willingness to purchase apartments

Following is a short interview we took from B.Sukhbaatar, Deputy Mayor for Construction, Housing, Industry, and Technology Parks, about ger area redevelopment.

-How many ger area redevelopment projects are currently being implemented in Ulaanbaatar?

-Currently, the ger area redevelopment projects are underway in 43 locations in Ulaanbaatar. Tenders have been announced for ger area redevelopment in five additional locations. The redevelopment has always been an important objective of the former governors. We are trying to implement it without repeating the previous mistakes. According to a survey which involved people living in ger areas, more than 80 percent of ger area residents in each district expressed their willingness to purchase apartment.

In Ulaanbaatar, only 120,000 of the 220,000 households living in ger areas without housing infrastructure will be involved in redevelopment project. As the remainder of 100,000 lives in areas with no access to engineering networks, “Re-planning of the ger area” will be undertaken to create basic conditions for the people to live comfortably in their own yards. Projects and programs will be realized to increase the value of the land. As part of the ger area redevelopment, works will be launched this year to vacate lands and provide apartments for low-income people in suburban ger areas. The project will be implemented in six khoroos of Bayanzurkh and Songinokhairkhan districts, which have the largest number of ger areas.

D.Sumiyabazar: Ger area redevelopment is an ideal solution, it should be continued

The first closure of the ger redevelopment and housing project took place last week. Within the framework of the project, the land of 80 households in the 9th khoroo of Sukhbaatar district has been vacated and 700 apartments have been commissioned.

-Distrust will likely arise as it is basically an exchange of existing assets for future tangible assets. How will you increase the citizens’ confidence?

Governor of the capital city and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar D.Sumiyabazar: "We are committed to supporting private sector participation as much as possible. The first closure of the ger redevelopment and housing project took place last week and the public well-received it. Mistakes might occur, but ger area redevelopment is an ideal solution, so it should be continued. The main issue we are facing is the funding. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the housing policy for 20-30 years and attract a loan with an interest rate of 1.75-2 percent in cooperation with the Government".

CAPITAL CITY TRAINING, RESEARCH, AND PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY

A coal-mining community that has elected the same political party for more than a century could decide Australia’s next government this month in an election that has divided the nation over how to battle climate change.

Poll after poll has shown that the majority of Australians want to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but with the ruling conservative Liberal-National coalition holding power by a single seat and the two main political camps almost neck and neck, it could come down to a handful of constituencies where an abrupt end to coal mining would devastate communities, leaving thousands of workers without jobs.

At stake is the policy of a nation that is a potential renewable-energy superpower but still gets 70% of its electricity and about a quarter of its exports from fossil fuels. Hastening an end to the nation’s vast coal industry would make a major contribution to the global effort to limit planetary warming.

With campaigning reaching a crescendo before the May 21 vote, the spotlight has fallen on Hunter, an electorate about the size of Jamaica some 100 miles north of Sydney, and famous for wine and coal. The Hunter Valley is one of huge contrasts, with bucolic century-old vineyards along the winding Hunter River bookended by some 40 operating mines to the west and the world’s largest coal-export port of Newcastle in the east.

Ravaged by the bushfires of Australia’s “Black Summer” two years ago, but dependent on fossil fuel sales, it is the nexus of the country’s climate dilemma, and helps explain the political paralysis that’s left the nation largely silent in efforts to craft global policy to accelerate action on emissions.

Almost one in 10 workers in Hunter are directly employed by the coal mining industry, a blue-collar legacy that made it a safe bet for 112 years for the center-left Labor Party. In recent elections, Labor’s promises to accelerate the fight against climate change have spooked many traditional supporters, threatening to hand the seat to the ruling coalition headed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who once famously brandished a lump of coal in parliament in support of the fossil fuel sector.

Now with Labor narrowly ahead in opinion polling, winning Hunter could be vital for Morrison to hang on to power. In the last election in 2019, Labor’s strong climate-change action promises caused a 9% swing to the government. A similar shift this month would see Morrison’s party win the seat for the first time.

But it’s a delicate balancing act for both sides. To garner support from the country at large, Morrison and opposition leader Anthony Albanese have been burnishing their climate credentials. A survey last year by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute showed that 55% of Australians now say the government’s main priority for energy policy should be “reducing carbon emissions.” In Hunter, though, the political campaigns are all about promising to save jobs and keep the coal industry going long enough to safeguard livelihoods.

“Hunter Valley coal is the best coal in the world, so while there is still a market for coal, it will continue to be serviced by the mines of the Hunter Valley,” said Matthew Swan, the Port of Newcastle’s business development manager, in his office overlooking docks that ship more than 150 million tons of the fuel a year.

Swan’s words have found an unusual supporter in Labor’s candidate for Hunter — Dan Repacholi.

Olympian task

“While people want to buy our coal, we’ll sell them our coal,” said Repacholi, a giant, four-time Olympian pistol shooter and former coal worker. We will “keep building and building and building until the export market decides that and the world decides that that’s not the way we’re going to go anymore.”

On the hustings, Repacholi effortlessly bonds with workers dropping in from the local pits and businesses, but his party’s traditional reputation for bolstering miners’ rights has been eroded by its strong climate-change stance. Labor has pledged to reduce emissions 43% by 2030 and boost the share of renewable energy to 82%, with a net zero target by 2050.

For Morrison’s government, the balancing act is even harder. There’s a growing sense that voters could punish his conservatives at the election after almost a decade in power during which they tore up one of the world’s first carbon-trading programs and refused to significantly penalize polluters. Australia has one of the largest per-capita emissions tallies in the developed world and climate scientists have linked a wave of natural disasters under Morrison’s watch to climate change, including the “once every 1,000 years” floods that smashed the continent’s east coast this year.

The government did finally set a 2050 net zero target ahead of last year’s Glasgow climate summit, but hasn’t set new interim goals and its outline for change has been criticized for relying on technologies still in development, such as hydrogen, to deliver the bulk of emission reductions.

In a speech in Perth on Saturday, Morrison said that if re-elected, his government would tackle climate challenge “in a way that maintains competitiveness of our traditional industries — not writing those industries off, but strengthening them in efficient and technologically advanced ways.” The government’s candidate for Hunter, James Thomson, did not respond to requests for an interview.

For workers in Hunter, the key is not to keep the coal industry going at all costs, but to come up with a realistic way to transition to clean energy without destroying the community.

“The idea that someone is going to be able to walk out of a mining pit on Friday and rock up at a hydrogen factory on Monday and do a course over the weekend — that’s not how it works,” said Warrick Jordan of the Hunter Jobs Alliance, established by a group of unions and environmental groups to help navigate the energy transition.

Singleton, in the heart of the coal-mining region, is one of seven local government areas out of more than 500 surveyed by the the Centre for Policy Development that would be “severely” impacted by global decarbonization. Eliminating fossil fuels could affect about 300,000 jobs throughout Australia connected to coal, oil and gas exports, the center said.

“We’re not planning for the future,” said Sue Gilroy, head of the Business Chamber in Singleton, which has a population of about 22,000. “We could be diversifying and growing the other industries and the other opportunities that we have in the Hunter.”

Oldest vineyards

Those other industries include the nation’s oldest vineyards, dating back as early as the 1820s, which have a pressing need to address global warming.

More than 2,600 hectares (6,425 acres) of the valley are now under vines, including estates such as Tyrrell’s, Brokenwood and Mount Pleasant. Steadily rising temperatures over the past decades have forced growers to take steps to protect harvests, such as increasing irrigation and spraying vines with sunscreen.

“The effects of climate change are really present and obvious in the wine industry — earlier harvests, more extreme rainfall, more extreme heat events, more compressed vintages” said Alisdair Tulloch, who runs a vineyard certified as carbon neutral by Australia’s government.

Extreme weather has also pushed more people to worry about the effects of climate change in the region. Until the bushfires two years ago, Fiona Lee believed the effects of global warming would only be felt by future generations. Her house near the Hunter Valley was one of about 3,000 destroyed during Australia’s 2019 and 2020 bushfires after a prolonged drought. Now she’s a full-time climate activist.

“There’s been quite an awakening in Australia” after the blazes, Lee said from an office where she coordinates opposition to a planned A$600 million gas plant in the town of Kurri Kurri. “There needs to be much more money in the Hunter to support workers in the transition. I can’t believe there’s no plan.”

(By Ben Westcott and Jason Scott)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its growth forecast for the Mongolian economy in 2022 to 1 percent, saying potential risks have already begun to materialize.

This came after IMF representatives led by senior economist Angana Banerji concluded a visit here aimed at assessing the country’s current economic and social situation and determining its medium-term prospects.

The IMF predicted last year that the Mongolian economy was expected to expand significantly in 2022, growing at 7 percent.

Mongolia is now facing a new shock emerging in the global economy, which is the Ukraine crisis. As a result, the country’s inflation is expected to remain high due to rising prices around the world.

If these issues are resolved, the Mongolian economic situation will improve next year, according to the IMF.

In the face of inflationary pressures, Angana Banerji advised the Mongolian government to provide further support only to the needy people, not the entire population.

In addition, the IMF suggested that Mongolia implement a poverty reduction program to increase tax revenues.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spent his middle childhood years in the Mongolian mining town of Erdenet, as the son of a Soviet specialist with corresponding privileges. At the time Mongolia’s dependence on the Soviet Union was the inspiration of numerous jokes and the giant Erdenet copper mine was being developed to supplement the Communist bloc’s copper supplies after the 1973 Chilean coup d’etat.

Today, as Zelenskyy is leading his nation in the fight against a renewed Russian aggression, Mongolia’s political class is sleepwalking into a pipeline deal that will increase its dependence on (and thus vulnerability to pressure from) Moscow, while exposing its Tibetan Buddhist community to Beijing’s intervention.

The idea of a trans-Mongolian gas pipeline is not new and was revived by Mongolia at the 2018 Eastern Economic Forum. In 2019, with tacit approval from Beijing, Gazprom and Mongolia’s state-owned Erdenes Mongol started a feasibility study on the Power of Siberia 2’s Mongolia leg, the Soyuz-Vostok pipeline.

Early this year, Mongolian authorities and Gazprom approved the Soyuz-Vostok feasibility study, notwithstanding the fact that the Power of Siberia 2’s overall feasibility study is still ongoing. A few days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Erdenes Mongol and Gazprom speedily signed an agreement for the engineering and design work of the pipeline, with the aim of starting construction in 2024. With a capacity comparable to that of the suspended Nord Stream 2 project, the Soyuz-Vostok is well-positioned to bring gas from Russia’s Yamal peninsula, which was originally destined for European markets, to China.

Despite having no expertise in developing natural gas pipelines, Ulaanbaatar up to now has not engaged any third-party advisers to evaluate the technical and financial aspects of the Soyuz-Vostok project. Neither Mongolia’s political leadership nor Gazprom seem to be interested in involving a third party, which could have potentially increased transparency, provided additional capital, and allowed for greater scrutiny of the financial, engineering, and environmental aspects of the pipeline.

As a result, Gazprom appears to have locked Erdenes Mongol into a predetermined set of technical and financial parameters, which will allow the Russia company to shift an unwarranted amount of the total project cost onto the Soyuz-Vostok section while leaving itself, or the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, the lion’s share of the net profits.

Without a proper evaluation of the project and third-party involvement, Mongolia is likely to take on a sizable loan from Russia, possibly on predatory terms, to finance its portion of the costs, while agreeing to pay it off from the gas transit fees. In this scenario, ironically similar to Soviet-era development of the Erdenet copper mine, Mongolia would be bearing heavy, possibly unjustified cost burdens, likely making just enough for the project to break even while not being able to secure long-term benefits such as scalable discounted gas supplies. Accordingly, negotiating on the transit fees, gas prices, and project funding in an information asymmetry will be detrimental to Ulaanbaatar’s interests.

From the way Soyuz-Vostok has been depoliticized and locked out of any public scrutiny, it is clear that Russia has successfully coopted Mongolia’s kleptocratic political class. Only recently, on the back of the war in Ukraine, have certain corners of the public started to question the morality of hosting a new Russian pipeline. However, no meaningful debate on the economic, geopolitical, and social impacts have taken place; apparently none of Mongolia’s political parties want to oppose the project.

Such depoliticization and co-optation of the Mongolian political elite would have been impossible without Russia’s recent soft power push into Mongolia. Starting from the mid-2010s Russia has increased Russian language and culture promotion activities, provided direct military assistance in the form of fighter jets and reconnaissance drones, and revived Soviet-era war memorials in Mongolia.

Furthermore, Moscow has exported the May 9 Victory Day celebrations to Mongolia in a format indistinguishable from Russia’s. Russia has also integrated uniquely Mongolian experiences – the 1939 Khalkhyn Gol battle commemoration and Mongolia’s World War II assistance – into its new memorials, such as at the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces. Meanwhile, Moscow-friendly politicians in Ulaanbaatar have been systematically promoting an illiberal value system driven by the rise of neo-Eurasianism, with far-right and anti-LGBT motives. Not surprisingly Mongolia’s ruling party, which controls all branches of the government, was among the two dozen international parties that expressed support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Moreover, there is little reason to believe that Mongolia will be able to shield itself from the geopolitical and geo-technical risks of the Soyuz-Vostok pipeline. A politically motivated suspension of gas transmission from Russia could delay cash flows, devalue Ulaanbaatar’s investment, and further indebt the country. In this context, it is suspicious that Russia continues to block Mongolia’s attempts to build indigenous hydropower generation capacity, which could provide an alternative to Russian energy.

Political risks in this case also come from the country at the other end of the pipeline, China, which has a habit of closing borders and applying diplomatic pressure on Mongolia every time the Dalai Lama visits at the invitation of Mongolian Buddhists.

Russia, constrained by sanctions and oil and gas embargoes, will be even keener to increase its exports to China by making use of a co-opted regime in Ulaanbaatar. This gives China not only the leverage to negotiate for cheaper gas prices, but also a means of imposing its will on Mongolia’s Buddhist community. In particular, Beijing is likely to ask Moscow for help in pressuring Mongolia’s Buddhists into cutting relations with the Dalai Lama and choosing a pro-Beijing Jebtsundamba Khutuktu.

Mongolia’s historic deity Jebtsundamba Khutuktu also happens to be one of the three top-ranking lamas of Tibetan Buddhism, along with the Dalai Lama and the Beijing-controlled Panchen Lama. His ninth reincarnation passed away in 2012. The Jebtsundamba Khutuktu’s reincarnation process, currently guided by the Dalai Lama, will significantly tilt the power balance in the fight for Tibetan Buddhism and has long been a ticking time-bomb for China-Mongolia relations. For Mongolia which has seen numerous border closures and other diplomatic fallout with Beijing over the Dalai Lama’s visits, ceding control over recognition of its religious leader will be interpreted as a highly symbolic loss of sovereignty.

Under the current circumstances, the risks of agreeing to a deal with Gazprom include Mongolia’s increased dependency on both Russia and China, further exposing Ulaanbaatar to political risks and potential pressure on sovereign domestic matters from its neighbors. All this will come with minimal economic gains, given the steep cost of the project and Mongolia’s unwillingness to aggressively negotiate its fair share of the profits.

Mongolia can’t afford to host a Russian gas pipeline given the repercussions to political and religious freedom. Shelving the Soyuz-Vostok pipeline project until better times is the best choice Ulaanbaatar can make given the current geopolitical environment and the state of its weakening democracy.

AUTHORS

GUEST AUTHOR

Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva is a graduate of Johns Hopkins SAIS with a concentration on Middle East and Eurasian studies. He has served at the National Security Council of Mongolia, researched the Russian oil and gas industry under sanctions for the Stanford U.S.-Russia Forum, and provided project finance advice on large-scale infrastructure projects in Mongolia.

May 11 (Reuters) - China is suspending imports of goats, sheep and related products from Mongolia due to the detection of a viral disease, according to a government statement published on Wednesday.

The ban took effect from April 29, after the detection of capripoxvirus, a contagious disease that can cause high mortality in livestock.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Tom Hogue)

ERDENEBULGAN, ARKHANGAI PROVINCE, MONGOLIA — The air smells foul. But the real danger lies below.

Pit latrines, a centuries-old system of human waste management still used by more than two-thirds of Mongolia’s population, collect sewage in deep pits, which can cause environmental contamination, infections, injuries and even deaths. Safer options are increasingly available, thanks to new technologies endorsed by the country’s government agencies, nonprofits and social enterprises. But obstacles ranging from cultural stigma to financial strain continue to prevent Mongolians from making the switch.

With its frozen winters and low population density, Mongolia is one of the most challenging places in the world to access basic sanitation, according to a 2020 report by the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. Most of Mongolian households lack plumbing, so toilets that require water aren’t feasible.

In 2015, Mongolia’s National Council for Standardization adopted new standards for toilet systems, which stated that they should offer ventilation, odor control, light, and safe sewage disposal. The Government Action Plan for 2020-2024 has budgeted more than 124 billion Mongolian togrogs ($41 million) to upgrade pit latrines in the country’s schools, dormitories and health centers.

The improved latrines, also known as eco-toilets, separate human waste and use ventilation ducts to minimize odor and prevent soil contamination. But the latest eco-toilets cost twice as much to install as digging a pit latrine, and require training and maintenance to keep them in good condition.

Perhaps an even greater challenge, however, has been the cultural stigma against bathroom-related conversations.

Pit latrines are the only toilet option for most residents in Erdenebulgan soum in Mongolia’s central Arkhangai province.

In 2017, a “Let’s Change Our Toilets” campaign sent teams across the country to try to broach the taboo topic through community workshops that reached 20,000 citizens.

“At the beginning of this work, people used to laugh that they couldn’t say the word ‘toilet,’” says Otgonchimeg Radnaajav, CEO of Mini Solutions Cooperative, the social enterprise that organized the campaign. Only now, with Mongolians becoming less squeamish, can public health programs clearly explain the hazards of pit latrines and the benefits of alternative models, she says.

After testing more than 20 outdoor eco-toilets suitable for Mongolia’s conditions, the campaign endorsed a waterless model made by Biolan, a Finnish company, that uses sawdust to absorb and separate waste. It costs about 800,000 togrogs ($261) and has been installed in 750 households since 2020, predominantly in Ulaanbaatar, the capital. Mini Solutions Cooperative offers interest-free loans to make the purchases more affordable.

“The work is just beginning, but we see it as a success,” Otgonchimeg says.

Another organization, WaSH Action of Mongolia, a nonprofit founded in 2015 to promote safe water, sanitation and hygiene, has replaced pit latrines in 350 Ulaanbaatar households, 100 rural homes and 12 schools with improved models that cost between 600,000 and 3 million togrogs ($200-$980). More than half the fees are covered by WaSH Action donors; recipients may contribute their portion by digging the holes and assembling the cabins.

Earlier initiatives had provided and installed the new latrines free of charge, but Shijirtuya Batjargal, a WaSH Action of Mongolia sanitation facilities specialist, says those recipients were less invested in ensuring the success of those projects. “There were issues that they would not treat their latrines with care and would not do relevant maintenance,” she says. “This is a lesson learned from our previous mistakes.”

This model has doors and locks so children won’t fall into the toilet, she says.

Between 2017 and 2021, 38 people fell into pit latrines nationwide, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. Ten died, including six children under the age of 9.

In March 2021, at a hospital in Arkhangai province’s Tariat soum, a woman gave birth while using the pit latrine, and the newborn fell into the 4-meter (13-foot) hole. Khalzan Baatarjargal, a police officer, rescued the infant.

“Though it felt disgusting, and I felt a little squeamish, the baby was crying, stretching out his hands, so I thought it was important to pick him up quickly,” he says.

Mongolia’s children also suffer disproportionately from bacterial diseases traced to pit latrines.

“Families dig wells in their backyards, grow vegetables, and have pit latrines right next to them,” says Suvd Batbaatar, head of the Environmental Health Service of the National Center for Public Health. “The environment is polluted, but children lack the habit of washing their hands.”

Amartuvshin Ragchaabazar shows off her sawdust-filled Biolan toilet, which she says is a big improvement from her pit latrine.

The pits freeze and expand in the country’s harsh winters; in summer, they defrost and overflow, and the soil and water contamination cause seasonal outbreaks of dysentery, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and salmonellosis.

These intestinal infections accounted for more than one-fifth of communicable diseases nationwide in the last decade and caused seven deaths between 2018 and 2020, according to the National Center for Communicable Diseases.

After learning about the myriad dangers of pit latrines at a “Let’s Change Our Toilets” workshop, Amartuvshin Ragchaabazar, of Kharkhorin soum, Uvurkhangai province, applied for a loan and purchased a Biolan model.

“Now, we don’t have to go outside to go to the toilet,” she says. “It’s pleasant, like living in an apartment.”

Delgermaa Ulziibayar, 41, of Erdenebulgan soum in Arkhangai province, shares a pit latrine with her family of seven. They have been saving to buy an eco-toilet, but their household expenses rose during the pandemic, delaying their plans.

“The previous two latrines were full, so we covered them with dirt and built the current latrine two years ago,” she says. “Pit latrines smell a lot in the summer, so we add deodorant, salt, disinfectant and car oil to suppress the odor. But they still stink.”

Odonchimeg Batsukh is a Global Press Journal reporter based in Mongolia.

Between April 29 and May 5, Mongolia has exported a total of 4,039.7 thousand tons of coal by shipping it on 2,891 containers through autoroad, and 499 containers through rail.

During the same week, 492.8 thousand tons of copper concentrate was exported, which is an increase of 23.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Since the start of the year, 3,371.9 tons of copper cathode have been exported.

As for iron ore and concentrate, the country has exported a total of 1,056.2 thousand tons by 20 containers through autoroad and 927 containers through rail.

As of May 5, the central bank has also purchased 4,060.8 kg of gold this year.

Taipei, Taiwan – As the Ukraine war upends global commodity markets and triggers a scramble for resources, the crisis is redrawing the Asia-Pacific region’s energy map. While the picture is far from clear, the region’s emerging contours are already having an outsized effect on the resource juggernaut of Australia.

With similar trade profiles, Russia and Australia compete in many key markets, from gas and coal to wheat and barley, ideally positioning Canberra to fill the gap left by a sanctioned Kremlin.

Amid geopolitical uncertainties, many Asian markets have fallen back on the nearby, stable democracy to weather the storm.

Woodside, Australia’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has reported soaring demand from democratic Asia. While American and Qatari LNG exports were redirected to Europe in March, Australia sent nine additional cargoes to South Korea and Japan and could yet gain more market share from Russia.

Meanwhile, the country’s coal miners have been scrambling to keep up with record demand, which has sent prices soaring. Newcastle coal futures, the commodity’s benchmark for Asia, rocketed to more than $400 per tonne in early March and currently remain about $350. Some producers reported in April that Australian coal sold out due to the rush.

“A lot of energy in Asia has been a-political,” Graeme Bethune, founder of EnergyQuest, an Australian-based energy advisory firm, told Al Jazeera. “But that is changing, as it is around the world. I think there will be more alignment between democracies going forward … and Australia is considered a safe and secure trading partner.”

Woodside

Woodside, Australia’s largest exporter of LNG, has reported soaring demand from democratic Asia [File: David Gray/Reuters]

Longer term, the outlook is less clear. Though Australia is valued as an energy backstop for the region now, the deeper trend for Asian nations is towards energy self-sufficiency, a trend likely to be accelerated by the current crisis.

Geopolitical pressures, combined with a new set of price incentives, could see an acceleration towards renewables, lowering reliance on imports and dampening demand for Australian energy.

“It would be nice to divorce energy from geopolitics, but the reality is you just can’t,” Bruce Robertson, an Australian analyst at energy think-tank IEEFA, told Al Jazeera.

“Ukraine has been a wake-up call for literally everyone around the world. Governments are looking at Europe, and Germany in particular, and seeing the new need for energy independence. If you can produce energy at home, you’re far more secure than relying on imports.”

Japan and China, two of the biggest buyers of Australian resources, are both looking to lower imports of its key energy products. A recent study by Australian National University academics warns China’s rising domestic production of coal means a huge cut to Australian imports is imminent, forecasting a 25 percent decrease by 2025.

The forecast follows on the heels of a bitter trade war that saw Australian coal targeted by unofficial sanctions by China. Although Australian coal that had been stranded at Chinese ports resumed passing through customs again late last year, the outlook suggests the commodity’s best days in China are already behind it.

Challenges to Australian exports

”China doesn’t want to rely on Australia for energy, that’s the bottom line,” Robertson said, predicting Beijing’s pivot away from Canberra will extend to LNG as well.

“They’ll likely stay the course with the current projects, but it is highly unlikely they will sign up for new LNG projects going forward.”

“China has not signed new LNG contracts with Australia for several years now,” Bethune added, noting more contracts had gone to US companies, while stressing he could not be sure how big a role politics had played.

Bethune said China still needs Australian coking coal for steelmaking and that will likely stay the case for the time being, despite an overall trend of diversifying away from Australian imports.

Japan is the world’s largest LNG importer and enjoys a longstanding trade partnership with Australia. Hit by shockwaves from Russia in recent weeks, increased shipments from Australia – already its largest supplier at more than 36 percent of total imports – helped Japan weather the storm. Yet Tokyo, which on Sunday announced it would phase out Russian oil in tandem with its Group of Seven partners, has set its sights on greater self-sufficiency, too.

“Japan aims to halve its LNG imports by 2030,” Robertson said. “Japan is the largest market for Australian LNG and represents around a third of our total exports. If Tokyo reaches its target, it would be a serious knock to Australian gas.”

While Australian LNG suppliers are looking to pivot to emerging South Asia, those markets present new obstacles.

Pakistan has experienced an LNG shortage marked by rolling blackouts and is now in contract disputes over defaulted projects with multinationals Gunvor and ENI. Bangladesh, meanwhile, has run out of credit to buy LNG at soaring spot market prices.

“I think they’ve been scared by the volatility and lack of availability [of gas],” Robertson said.

“Will they continue to double down on gas after this? I think it would be a rather foolish move.”

Solar panels in China

The once optimistic outlook for natural gas overall is increasingly in doubt as renewables become more economically attractive [File: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg]

The once optimistic outlook for natural gas overall is increasingly in doubt as rising costs of LNG and market volatility have made renewables a lot more attractive.

“For price-sensitive countries, the current environment and volatility is certainly a cause of concern,” Kaushal Ramesh, a Singapore-based researcher at Rystad Energy, told Al Jazeera. “There is a risk countries will be unable to afford LNG for the next five years as Europe absorbs global supply.”

Ramesh said many countries will face the choice of either continuing to rely on coal and fuel oil or making the jump to renewables.

“Ultimately, one of the greatest means of ensuring energy security is to break the link with commodity imports altogether – from both this perspective and a marginal price perspective, renewables provide that pathway,” he said.

Despite Australia’s reliance on resources, there is still a bullish case to be made for its energy as the renewable era dawns.

Australia has the highest solar radiation per square metre of any continent on Earth, receiving roughly 58 million petajoules of sunshine each year – equivalent to 10,000 times its total energy consumption.

Efforts to leverage that power are under way. The Australia-Asia PowerLink project, expected to be completed later in the decade, will help power Singapore and Indonesia with the largest solar farm in the world in northern Australia.

“There’s also a growing focus on hydrogen,” Bethune said. “Australia also produces critical minerals needed for renewables.”

Ramesh said Australia is in a strong position to be a regional renewable energy powerhouse when it comes time to break the commodity link.

“We understand there are ongoing discussions about renewable power exports and the development of green hydrogen and green ammonia hubs,” he said.

One such plant for these new green fuels was granted “coordinated project status” by the Queensland state government just last month.

“These projects are still in their early stages, but they have attracted attention from Australia’s current fossil fuel customers in North Asia,” Ramesh said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA