Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade on Friday published a list of goods allowed for parallel import into the country. The mechanism, which will circumvent the Western embargo on the export of goods to Russia by importing them from third party countries, will become effective on May 6.

The list includes 56 groups of goods required for the industry and for consumers. Customs officers will have to check the TN VED codes (commodity nomenclature for foreign economic activity) and brand names with the order.

The list includes plants, pharmaceutical products, and cosmetics. It does not cover certain brands, such as Garnier, L’Oreal, Maybelline, NYX, Lancome, Valentine, Prada, and others.

Parallel imports of apparel, headgear, footwear, fabrics, and furs and leather goods have been allowed without any limitation by brands.

The list also includes certain car components and spare parts and almost all foreign car brands like GM, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi, Renault, Tesla, Honda, Nissan, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi, Toyota, Lexus, Suzuki, Volvo and others.

Among other items allowed for import are musical instruments, airport equipment, sound recording and TV equipment, boats, and railway locomotives.

According to the head of the ministry, Denis Manturov, the list will be adjusted once a quarter or every two months. It can either expand or narrow depending on the decisions of foreign companies to work in Russia, he said.

In March, Moscow authorized retailers to import products from abroad without the trademark owner’s permission. The decision followed global brands halting sales or stopping exports to Russia due to pressure from their governments to comply with sanctions.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin then clarified that “parallel imports” were needed to ensure that certain goods could continue to be shipped to Russia.

Steppe Gold Limited (TSX: STGO) (OTCQX: STPGF) continues its ramp up of production in Mongolia following the recent restart in March with gold production in two pours in April totalling approximately 3,350 oz (March 2022, 1,532 oz).

Reagent shipments continued uninterrupted in April and the process of restocking the reagent storage facility is ongoing.

Mining and stacking activities are on plan for the month with Cell 4 stacking nearly complete. The final cell, #5, of the first lift, will be complete by late summer, after which stacking of the second lift will commence. The new crushing unit will be operational in the summer, allowing acceleration of stacking activities.

President and CEO of Steppe Gold, Bataa Tumur-Ochir, said mining activities continued at planned rates with hauling of high-grade blast material at ATO 1 and ATO 4.

He also confirmed recent site visits by qualified persons and consultants as optimisation work on the Phase 2 Expansion continues, to include further drill work and modelling of mining scenarios.

“We are very pleased to report continued ramp up of production at the ATO Gold Mine. All activities at site are running well and we look forward to a successful year of gold and silver production, and regular updates on our very exciting Phase 2 Expansion,” Bataa Tumur-Ochir commented.

The Steppe Gold team recently celebrated the fourth anniversary of our IPO on the TSX. In aspecial message, our CEO, Bataa Tumur-Ochir, congratulated the Steppe team and expressed sincere gratitude to the company’s partners and shareholders for their support. For further information please visit: https://steppegold.com/

The Bank of Mongolia said Wednesday that it has purchased 3.8 tons of gold so far this year, reporting a decrease of 453 kg compared to the same period last year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Mongolia's forex reserves fell to 3.3 billion U.S. dollars in mid-April, down 1.2 billion dollars from the end of 2021, according to the central bank.

It purchased 20.9 tons of the precious metal last year and plans to buy at least 24 tons of gold in 2022 to increase the country's forex reserves.

Central banks typically hold gold as part of their foreign exchange reserves because of its long-term historical returns and high liquidity.

Elixir Energy Ltd (ASX:EXR) is working hard on the coal bed methane (CBM) exploration/appraisal program underway across its 100%-owned Nomgon IX CBM production sharing contract.

The company recently finished drilling the Tim-2 appraisal well – a follow-on from the successful Tim-1S exploration well drilled earlier this year.

Tim-2 well drilled

Tim-2 was drilled to a total depth of 1,020 metres – the deepest well Elixir has drilled in Mongolia to date. It logged 3 metres of coal and 5 metres of silty coal.

Localised faulting is the reason for the decrease in coal thickness from Tim-1 and Elixir will now integrate the Tim-2 results with geological mapping, age-dating and potentially new seismic to better define this coal-bearing sub-basin.

Newly hired drilling contractor Ellecohr LLC has recently spudded its first well for Elixir, Yangir-4, an appraisal well in the previously identified coal-bearing Yangir sub-basin.

Bulag Suuj-1S to spud later this week

The Top Diamond Drilling LLC rig that drilled Tim-2 has now mobilised to a new potential sub-basin in the west of the PSC and will spud the Bulag Suuj-1 well imminently.

Extended pilot production testing planned for mid-year continues to progress, with tendering for the civil works well advanced and a contractor expected to be hired shortly.

The company’s 2022 2D seismic acquisition program is proceeding as planned, with 223 kilometres, of a total of 322 kilometres, acquired to date.

Two rigs now operating

Elixir managing director Neil Young said: “The arrival of the Mongolian spring has allowed our multiple well program for 2022 to really accelerate and it is good to see two rigs now operating.

“Our pilot program – our and the country’s first – which is due to spud in mid-year – is on track.”

A decision to increase the minimum wage to MNT 550 thousand in 2023 was made at the meeting of the Tripartite National Commission for Labor and Social Concession held yesterday.

Thus, the minimum wage increased by MNT 130,000 or 31 percent from MNT 420 thousand. The decision will take effect from January 1, 2023.

There are about 1.1 million employees nationwide and 8 percent of them or about 80 thousand people earn the minimum wage.

Ever since I started my brand in 2002, I have been coming home to Mongolia to visit and spend time with the nomads who take care of the goats that give us cashmere yarns. Much has changed over the years, but one thing has remained the same, something that has been the same for centuries, is our nomads’ lifestyle and values. We worship and respect the land, sky, mountains and rivers through spoken words, Tibetan Buddhism, songs and dances.

My annual trips have now started to focus on nomadic communities who are working towards full sustainability and who are enrolled in programmes, such as the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA), which have a long-term strategy of establishing full sustainability in the cashmere industry. Currently, the sustainability situation in Mongolia is not too bad, but it could deteriorate if we don’t act on it. It is important for me to support it, stay up to date with the challenges it faces and share our nomads’ inspiring stories.

On this trip, the temperature was -6C by day and -16C at night when I arrived in Ulaanbaatar, but the sky was clear blue, the air crisp and uplifting. We headed with my photographer Davaanyam, and videographer Khurlee, to Western Mongolia in a Jeep, armed with a gas cooker, enough coffee and snacks. Due to Covid, we heard rumours that most petrol stations might be shut in the remote areas, so we also brought extra petrol. Our plan was to travel from the capital to the far western areas of Mongolia, travelling 1,500km along the southern route and making our way back along the northern route, meeting nomadic communities on the way, experiencing the beauty of our country, travelling a total of 3,000km in seven days.

In Mongolia, you can visit any nomadic family on the road; their welcome and hospitality are legendary. The concept within the nomadic community is that humans face nature, so humans are allies. In nomadic culture, and not just among Mongolian nomads, people are very hospitable and spending time with them becomes an organic process.

This was the first time that I interviewed nomads on camera and took professional photographs of them. I asked them what earth and land means to them; what the most difficult thing and the most beautiful thing about being a nomad was; and what they felt was precious. Their answers ranged from family to land, to mountains and personal values.

We also asked them if they would like to ask something of our audience in the UK and worldwide in reverse, because I’m passionate about connecting people between the two ends of the cashmere production chain; the start being the nomads who are the most important part as they take care of these goats and the end being people who use cashmere products. We really want to connect them on a human level.

Depending on the season, nomads generally wake with the sun, which in the summer can be around 4am. The women usually wake first, light the fire, and warm up the ger so that it’s warm when the kids wake up. You can imagine in -30C it gets very cold. (The little girl, Nominsuvd, we were staying with was sitting in a T-shirt while we were there in cashmere jumpers and jackets – they are very tough.)

A ger, meaning ‘home’ in Mongolian, is a yurt and is made from wooden lattices forming a wall and thin wooden poles branching out toward the round crown at the top, that is suspended by two columns. This wooden base is covered in thick handmade wool-felt and cotton canvas and it’s all held together with hand-spun wool ropes. Nowadays many families have solar panels to charge their televisions and phones and so one sleeps in a totally EMF and electric pollution free home.

A ger is one of the most natural dwellings on earth, keeping in warmth in winter and maintaining coolness in the summer. It is portable, assembled or disassembled easily, and it’s beautiful in its simplicity of design and mobility. The Mongolian ger is registered by Unesco as an object of the world cultural heritage of mankind.

After a breakfast of milk tea with clarified butter and boortsog, Mongolian cookies (they are known as bawirsaq in the Middle East), the day starts by tending to the animals and milking the cows; depending on how many animals they have, it could take two hours in the morning. Then they let the livestock go out to pasture.

After a day out in the pastures, nomadic families feast on their own produce. Their diet consists predominantly of meat and homemade dairy products and for the last 200 years or so there has also been rice and root vegetables. There isn’t lots of it in their diet, but it is available from the province or village centres. From the beef to the mutton, the quality is amazing. It’s not just organic, but wild-roaming, herb-fed and the taste is so different. Just simply cooked meat with a bone broth, boiled potatoes, carrots and onions is absolutely delicious.

While modern nomads are online and mainly stay in touch via Facebook, their evening entertainment remains more physical interactive: chess, archery, musical instruments, and a game called shagai, which involves the small astragali bones of a sheep or goat, representing their five prized animals, Tavan Khoshuu Mal: sheep, horses, camels, cows and goat. And, of course, sharing riddles and poems and singing – the nomadic oral culture is very strong, and they speak beautifully.

Bedtime tends to be quite early, around 8pm, as they rise with the sun, which is the healthiest way. In the west, there is a rising awareness about circadian rhythms as a trend, but in Mongolia it is the way of life.

Nomadic kids start helping the family at an early age. When they are just four or five years old they are already riding horses and can help out when rounding up the herd. Around 35% of the population, or 1 million Mongolians, are nomads and it’s quite usual in a nomadic family for it to be passed on. My father was a nomad when he was born, but then he moved to a city.

It is not easy to be a nomad. When there is a tough winter with strong snowstorms or a dry summer with little rain, it can be very challenging. As a result, young nomads are attracted more to cities, but in cities it is tough for them because they have no education or specific professions applicable to an urban environment and can fall into poverty. They need support from the country, various organisations, and the entire cashmere consuming using people in the world. It’s sad if young nomads start giving up on nomadic culture because Mongolia, as one of the last remaining nomadic cultures, will change as we know it.

Being a nomad should not remain in the traditional way that it has worked for centuries. There are ways to support, inspire and learn from the modern nomads of Mongolia. Education and entrepreneurship can be part of being a nomad and could help young nomads being proud of who they are, like many generations of strong and proud nomads before them. That can help preserve this amazing nomadic culture and values, that the world could benefit from learning.

One special evening on this trip, we were welcomed into the home of Lkhaisuren and Uyanga – a young nomad couple – in Khovd Province, where we stayed overnight in their ger.

Going to sleep looking at the stars through their ger’s roof, with the sound and delicious smell of softly burning wood in a fireplace and waking up to the sweeping view of the valley was the most amazing experience of this trip. For nomads, the valley is their living room, a land with no fences and blue skies. Now, who would not want to experience that, and let the future generations to experience that too? As told to Scarlett Conlon

By Oyuna Tserendorj

The Mongolian government on Wednesday decided to allow South Korean tourists to visit Mongolia without a visa for up to 90 days until the end of 2024 after the visa-free regime comes into force on June 1.

The decision is part of the government's efforts to revive the pandemic-hit tourism sector and vitalize the economy by attracting more foreign tourists, the government's press office said in a statement.

Mongolia received a total of around 577,300 foreign tourists in 2019, hitting an all-time high, according to the Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The Asian country aims to attract the same number of foreign tourists in 2022, the ministry said.

Currently, Mongolia's economy is largely dependent on export earnings from the mining sector. Developing the tourism sector is seen as the most reachable solution to diversify the country's mining-dependent economy.

It is estimated that at least 577,000 South Korean tourists will visit Mongolia in the next three years thanks to the visa-free regime.

It is easy to feel that companies in the travel and tourism sector have inflated claims about their ‘green’ credentials in order to capitalise and profit. We’re a small, specialist tour operator without stakeholders or investors and we’re limited by our resources – both time and economic. However, we try really hard to make good decisions and although we cannot hope to change the world, do not get everything right or know all the answers, as a tour company, we have the chance to educate and influence the behaviour of our team and to inspire our guests and one way we are doing this is focusing on how we can help to eliminate single-use plastics in Mongolia.

As part of our (Mini) Plastic Free Mongolia Challenge, we highlight five ways in which our guests can help us to eliminate single-use plastics in Mongolia. One of those steps focuses on the use of plastic bottles.

In Mongolia, due to its challenging infrastructure, a majority of families do not have access to drinking water from a tap. Instead, there is a countrywide network of water supply stations where families come to collect their water. Here at EL we have never bulked purchased disposable plastic water bottles for our guests on our Mongolia tours. Instead, we have always provided two 20 litre water containers in each of our tour vehicles which we then refill taking fresh drinking water from these water supply stations. For added security, we provide a Steripen Adventurer or Lifesaver water filter which our guests use to neutralise their water.

We now also have a working partnership with Water-To-Go from whom our guests can purchase filtered water bottles. The filter in their 75 cl bottles is the equivalent of 400 single-use plastic bottles. Water-To-Go is a 3-in-1 filtration system that eliminates well in excess of 99.9% of microbiological contaminants including viruses and bacteria from any non-salt water source. Furthermore, the filter eliminates harmful contaminants from the water but allows the beneficial minerals such as sodium and magnesium to pass through leaving the healthiest water possible. Water-to-Go filters have also been independently tested against internationally recognised standards by industry specialists including The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK) and BCS Laboratories (USA).

EL guests that purchase a Water-To-Go bottle also receive an exclusive 15% discount. From each purchase using the discount code, an additional 15% is donated to buy Plan Vivo Foundation carbon certificates which are used to support the Plan Vivo Mongolian Nomad Project – working in partnership with the Mongolian Society of Range Management – https://www.planvivo.org/pastures-conservation-climate...

What We Need To Work On

In the EL office, we use 1-2 20L water dispensers a week. These are recyclable dispensers purchased from a local family-run shop next to the office and the dispenser is returned and reused. But, we do purchase cold drinks for our guests when on the road (oh the joy of finding a Coke in a working fridge in a small town in the Gobi Desert in the middle of summer), our guests and team purchase drinks for themselves when on tour and we do purchase drinks for the office which we keep in the fridge for our team for when they return to the office. These drinks are a mix of cans and plastic bottles.

Also, although the need to bring a reusable water bottle and our partnership working with Water To Go is highlighted throughout our Pre Departure Guidelines and Packing List, not all of our guests manage this and do purchase bottles of water.

A major issue in Ulaanbaatar – Mongolia’s capital city – remains that sorting or recycling are undertaken by very few companies and there are very few regular collections. Outside of Ulaanbaatar, the sorting and recycling of waste is even more limited (although local projects are focusing on waste reduction and management such as Ecosoum in Bulgan Aimag). However, in Ulaanbaatar, there is an emergence of organisations within the private sector and we are in the process of establishing a recycling system within our UB office with separate bins for paper, plastic, and cans which we can then transfer to recycling bins which have been placed close to our office. For plastic bottles and drinks cans bought when on tour by our guests and EL team members, we will try and set up a system whereby they are crushed, placed in a sack, and brought back to the recycling bins close to the EL office.

‘The production of plastics totalled around 368 million metric tons worldwide. The incredible versatility of this group of materials accounts for the continued growth in production year after year. In tandem with that growth, the market value of plastics also continues to grow.’

We’re a small company but with small steps, we are working on making our own small corner of the travel industry a better place and managing our usage of plastic bottles, and working with Water To Go form part of those small steps. Transparency is as important as action and we will publish each year our progress. For now, we invite you to be part of this bigger travel philosophy and purchase a Water To Go bottle.

Water-To-Go EL Discount Code (link)

Your Closest Water-To-Go Distributor (link)

For more on our Responsible Tourism philosophy – https://www.eternal-landscapes.co.uk/responsible-tourism.../

At its regular meeting on May 4, the Cabinet heard a report on the progress of railway construction works.

As of today, the construction of the Tavantolgoi-Zuunbayan railroad is running at 88.4 percent. The railroad is planned to be put into operation in October this year, reported the Ministry of Road and Transport Development.

As for the railroad being laid en route Tavantolgoi-Gashuunsukhait, its construction is running at 76.4 percent. The railroad is planned to be commissioned in July this year.

Furthermore, corresponding officials are holding talks with the National Development and Reform Commission of the PRC on the construction of railroad en route Gashuunsukhait-Gantsmod, informed the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson Ch.Bolortuya. The talks aim to comprehensively resolve certain issues related to freight transportation and coal exports.

China’s metallurgical coal supply is expected to remain limited in the second quarter of 2022, as coking sector’s inventories deplete and Mongolian coal suppliers face logistical hurdles, industry sources said April 13. Industry analysts see relatively lower seaborne met coal shipments reaching China in Q2 than Q1 due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Meanwhile, some Mongolian coal shipments got stuck at Northwest Inner Mongolian land ports, as authorities flagged fluorine content in coal not in compliance with standards, resulting in several containers accumulating at the land ports of Erlian and Ganqimaodu.

This has hindered Mongolian coal trade into China.

As a result, Ganqimaodu’s efforts to step up daily coal haulage into China and raise the number of trucks to 300 remain a distinct possibility for now, according to investment bank Founder CIFCO Futures.

Also, China has adopted strict measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, a development that would keep operations at the Ceke land port closed. In the near term, daily Mongolian coal haul to China is expected to remain steady at around 200 trucks.

At one point in 2020, the number of trucks hauling Mongolian coal into China reached more than 2000.

Mongolia aims to ship 36.7 million mt of met coal to China in 2022. That will take 2022 volumes 161% higher from the last year level.

China is prioritizing thermal coal demand, leading to capping of domestic met coal output growth in January-February, while limited Mongolian coal haul has squeezed met coal supplies further.

More met coal supplies from Mongolia and Russia are only expected by the third or fourth quarter of this year.

While met coal stocks at coking producers were down, stocks at key Chinese ports were also at lower levels. As of April 8, met coal stocks at six Chinese ports were at 2.02 million mt.