“The International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Outlook [..] is probably the closest thing to a bible in the energy world,” says a Bloomberg article following the publication of the 2021 edition.

Released earlier than usual in time for the Conference of Parties (COP26) starting in Glasgow next week, this edition – the 44th – “has been designed, exceptionally, as a guidebook to COP26”.

At 386 pages IEA WEO 2021 is quite the tome (download here). Under Section 6.3.1, you’ll find the energy bible’s take on “critical minerals”. It is six pages in total.

Those six pages may be headlined critical minerals, but it’s hard to detect a sense of urgency in Section 6.3.1:

“The rapid deployment of low-carbon technologies as part of clean energy transitions implies a significant increase in demand for critical minerals.”

We have questions

The word “significant” used here contains multitudes (lithium “100 times current levels” according to the IEA’s own calculations) and the Paris-based firm has some questionne:

“The prospect of a rapid increase in demand for critical minerals – well above anything seen previously in most cases – raises questions about the availability and reliability of supply.”

With only six pages to work with, the IEA has to be succinct in its appraisal of the mining industry:

“The [supply] challenges are compounded by long lead times for the development of new projects, declining resource quality, growing scrutiny of environmental and social performance and a lack of geographical diversity in extraction and processing operations.”

Questions raised. Challenges compounded. Take that global warming!

Mining ghost protocol

Edinburgh-based Wood Mackenzie has also been doing some research ahead of COP26.

Woodmac, which beat the IEA by four years, releasing its first oil report in 1973, is expanding its mining and metals practice, most recently with the acquisition of London-based Roskill.

A new report by Julian Kettle, SVP of Woodmac’s metals and mining division, and senior analyst Kamil Wlazly, answers the questions about the availability of supply in the very title:

Mission impossible: supplying the base metals for accelerated decarbonisation

Woodmac is refreshingly blunt in its assessment of mining’s role in fighting climate change:

“The energy transition starts and ends with metals.”

“Achieving global net zero is inexorably linked to base metals supply.”

“Base metals capex needs to quadruple to about $2 trillion to achieve an accelerated energy transition.”

Whoomp, there it is.

The hidden ones

There are many eye-popping graphs in Mission impossible (download here) but this one perfectly illustrates why the decarbonisation goals of the Conference of Parties, without plans for new mines, only add hot air to the warming planet.

COP26 will be a colossal mining cop-out

Woodmac gets straight to the point: “delivering the base metals to meet [net zero 2050] pathways strains project delivery beyond breaking point from people and plant to financing and permitting.”

Copper, which Woodmac emphasizes “sits at the nexus of the energy transition” stands out particularly.

The 19 million tonnes of additional copper that need to be delivered for net-zero 2050 implies a new La Escondida must be discovered and enter production every year for the next 20 years.

Even if you focus on just one of the obstacles bringing new copper supply online – the time it takes to build a new mine – and leave aside all other factors, net-zero 2050 has zero chance.

Great great grandfathered in

Consider that among the world’s largest copper mines, La Escondida is a relative newcomer – it was discovered in 1981, and only hit 1 million tonnes 20 years later. (MINING.COM’s official measure of copper production is the escondida which equals one million tonnes.)

The weighted average discovery year of the planet’s top 20 biggest copper mines is 1928. US number one mine Morenci (less than half an escondida in 2020) was discovered in 1870. Chile and the world’s number two copper mine Collahuasi (O.63 escondida) dates back to 1880.

When Congo’s Kamoa-Kakula went into production in May this year it was the biggest new mine to do so since Escondida. By 2028 it will produce 840,000 tonnes a year. Kamoa-Kakula is a poster child for rapid mine development, yet Robert Friedland’s exploration team discovered the deposit back in 2003.

Let it be resolved

With ample reserves, the US has a number of uncommitted projects that would support the Conference of Parties and their wannabe cheerleader, the Biden administration, advancing its climate goals.

A top contender is the Resolution project in Arizona, near the town of Superior in the area known as the Copper Triangle.

Contained copper tops 10 million tonnes making it the sixth-largest measured deposit in the world. It’s an underground high-grade mine that shrinks its environmental footprint.

The world’s number one and two mining companies, BHP and Rio Tinto, have already spent $2 billion on it, including reclamation of a historical mine. The deposit was discovered in 1995 and 26 years later remains stuck in permitting hell.

Looks like a perfect candidate for fast track approval to help with those lofty climate goals and create those millions of promised green jobs.

Right? Trump – five days before leaving office – publishes a pivotal environmental report on the project.

Wrong. Biden rescinds the study and Democrats add specific wording to the $X.X trillion infrastructure bill that would block Resolution from going ahead.

Perhaps not surprising then, the news that BHP and others are looking at the previously shunned African copperbelt.

When central Africa is a friendlier jurisdiction for miners than the US, there may be something wrong with your strat… For more see above and below.

We process, you dig

The White House’s policy is one of relying on other countries to supply metals to the US because “it’s not that hard to dig a hole. What’s hard is getting that stuff out and getting it to processing facilities.”

A strategy that worked so well for the US with rare earths.

Perhaps the White House got the idea from Indonesia, which insists miners build processing plants and refineries to own the entire battery metal supply chain and by extension huge chunks of electric vehicle manufacture.

Tiny difference though: the grand design of Jakarta, like Beijing, Santiago, et al, includes the first link in the supply chain.

And when things go wrong in metals supply for automaking, they go really wrong, as the EU found out this month.

Overburdening overburden

Biden desperately wants a deal before COP26 to brag about all the ways it fights emissions by subsidizing American electric cars, windmills and solar panels overseas lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, silver, and rare earth mining companies.

As if the permitting process isn’t torture enough, there’s more in Biden’s bill that’ll make miners and explorers gnash their teeth and pull their hair out.

Also included in the reconciliation spending measure is an 8% gross – yes, gross isn’t it – royalty on existing mines and 4% on new ones. New ones? Ha!

There would also be a 7 cent fee for every tonne of rock moved.

This is a particularly stupefying proposal. Not easy to find anything in the tax code that shows this kind of ignorance of how an industry operates, but it would not be dissimilar to taxing farmers for every acre ploughed (multiplied by the length of the blades just to make sure you precisely measure the displaced dirt), regardless of any harvest.

What’s another year

It was two years ago almost to the day on the occasion of a Greta Thunberg protest in MINING.COM’s hometown of Vancouver, that this paper declared Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the mining industry’s unlikely heroines.

We urged miners to embrace the goals of the environmental movement and initiatives like the Green New Deal.

With all the glaring holes drilled into COP26’s decarbonisation plans, it sure feels like it was Greta and AOC that copped out of this embrace, not mining.

A new report by consulting firm Kearney shows Chinese cities grew by over 3% on average this year, thanks to their quick recovery and effective pandemic control measures.

In contrast, other cities around the world saw average growth in their Global Cities Index (GCI) score of less than 1% as a result of the coronavirus crisis, while some even experienced negative growth.

“In the wake of a year of devastation and uncertainty, global cities proved their resilience. Now, as they seek to lead the global recovery, cities must define a new approach to globalism with resilience and urban well-being at the core,” said the report.

China also performed strongly in the Global Cities Outlook (GCO), rising by over 3% over the past five years, the fastest in any region. Kearney said that Chinese cities have narrowed the gap with their European and North American counterparts.

Leading global cities have demonstrated resilience and adaptability despite initially being hit hard by Covid-19 due to their high connectivity and density.

New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo retained the top four positions on the index. Los Angeles rose by two positions to fifth place. Beijing settled in sixth, followed by Hong Kong, while Shanghai rose two places to break into the top 10 for the first time.

The report covered and ranked 156 cities, including 31 in China.

Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of argali sheep -- a near endangered species -- in western Mongolia has increased to 4,095, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The census of argali sheep, a species of wild sheep living along Mongolia's western border with Russia, was conducted from 2019 to October this year in the Mongolian provinces of Bayan-Ulgii and Uvs, the WWF-Mongolia said in a statement on Thursday.

There are nine subspecies of argali across the world. Among them is Altai argali mainly living in Mongolia and bordering countries. Given its decreasing population overall, argali is a near endangered species. It is the first time that the regional population of argali sheep has exceeded 4,000.

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. The creation of a joint economic corridor with Russia and China on the territory of Mongolia will be of strategic significance for the three states, President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh said in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.

"We are considering the matter of creating the economic corridor of three countries. As the President of Mongolia, I believe this is a critical item of strategic importance for Russia, Mongolia and China over time. Therefore, we consider the railway upgrade, construction of new branch lines, parallel tracks, motorways and the gas pipeline from Russia to China as highly important and proactively work on them," the President said.

Mongolia set the task of becoming the transit state, the President said. "You probably remember that I talked about that during the Eastern Economic Forum also. The shortest way from Europe to Asia is through Mongolia. The shortest transport route between Russia and China is across the expanses of Mongolia. We therefore keep a close eye on development of transit, logistical and digital potential in our country," he added.

Arid, rocky desert stretching out across the horizon with no end in sight, with heavy sandstorms carving out dry steppe land from time to time.

This may be what you would normally imagine when you think of Mongolia, home to Asia’s largest and coldest desert -- Gobi Desert.

In a country where forests only cover less than 10 percent of the total land, afforestation is innately difficult -- it has a very short growing season that is restricted by cold temperatures and low precipitation.

By 2005, 78 percent of land in Mongolia had undergone desertification. To tackle the issue, the Mongolian government devised a plan to form a greenbelt over 202,000 hectares of land to not only combat drought but climate change, natural disasters and environmental pollution.

After spending a decade planting trees in Mongolian cities including Lun, Dalanzadgad and Bayanzag, some 3,000 hectares of deserted land have turned into unpolluted, lush woodland.

And South Korea’s Korea Forest Service has been behind Mongolia’s forestation efforts since 2007.

Besides planting trees, the KFS has also set up plant nurseries in Lun, Dalanzadgad and Bayanzag over a combined 45 hectares of land to offer afforestation technology training sessions for some 8,000 Mongolian officials and residents.

In 2017, the two countries kicked off a bilateral reforestation project to plant some 40 hectares of urban forest in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

The urban forest, filled with some 30,000 trees, includes a playground, sport facilities, a natural arboretum, a fountain and a visitor information center. The forest opened its doors to the public last month.

South Korea’s effort to support Mongolia’s program to reforest desert areas are continuing.

Last month, KFS Minister Choi Byeong-am visited Mongolia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism to sign a deal, the two countries’ third project to fight Mongolia’s deforestation.

Some $8 million will be injected to reforest Mongolia’s northern areas which have been damaged by wildfires. It will be also used to train local workforce and research on agroforestry from 2022 to 2026.

South Korea’s efforts fall in line with the Mongolian government’s Green Belt National Program of Mongolia, which intends to reforest areas in the Gobi Desert and the country’s steppe regions by 2035.

“The agreement between the two countries reflect not only the current global trends to address environmental issues like climate change but also recognizes the significance of achieving land degradation neutrality which was adopted as a sustainable development goal target at the UN Assembly in 2015,” said the KFS.

On Sept. 22, Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh said at the latest United Nations General Assembly in New York that the country is determined to “fight against climate change with achievements of the modern science and technology as well as best practices and the traditional experiences.”

He said the country has launched a campaign to plant billions of trees by 2030, inspired by lessons from the traditional Mongolian “nomadic civilization” to respect and treat nature deferentially.

Earlier this month, Khurelsukh also ordered to establish the Forestry Administration and inject at least 1 percent of the country’s GDP for funds to tackle climate change and desertification.

By Kim Da-sol and Lee Kwon-hyung

(ddd@heraldcorp.com)

(kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)

In order to receive 1 million tourists annually - one of the main objectives for the tourism sector of Mongolia, it is necessary to address the matter by looking at it through a single window and carrying out works on digital marketing, highlighted President of the Mongolian Marketing Association Sh.Altanbagana during Tourist Forum Mongolia-2021 that took place on October 25.

Organized under the motto, ‘The new normal - Strategy to revive tourism’, the forum was attended by representatives of government organizations such as the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Culture, and representatives of the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI), the Chamber’s Tourism Council, NGOs, and private entities to discuss strategies to revive the tourism sector. Discussions took place under three main topics: ‘Marketing and foreign promotional works for post-COVID-19’, ‘Opportunities for tourist transportation and issues to resolve’, and ‘Trends and standards for hospitality services’.

In her opening remarks for the forum, Minister of Environment and Tourism N.Urtnasan said, “This time, the forum has gathered both public and private sector representatives, including researchers, decision-makers, business owners, local government officials, NGOs, and workers in the tourism sector. In order to define possible solutions for the sector’s revival, correlation and cooperation between sectors is crucial.”

The stock market of Mongolia has been added to the Watch List for ‘Frontier Market’ status by the FTSE Russell Group of the U.K.

The group categorizes markets into four main categories, from ‘Frontier’ to ‘Developed’ based on a range of technical criteria. Each year, the classification of countries’ markets are reviewed, and placed on a ‘Watch List’ prior to promoting or demoting the market from the current category.

The assessment is conducted by the FTSE Country Classification Advisory Committee consisting of experts in trading, custody, and investment management, and the Policy Advisory Board consisting of representatives of the leading global investors.

Mongolia was initially included in the Frontier Market category in 2012. However, due to certain factors such as the replacement of the T+3 system with the prepaid system, and the decision to abolish the Settlement Guarantee Fund that was established to cover settlement risks, the country’s market was demoted from the category in 2017.

In order to be re-promoted into the category, the Mongolian Stock Exchange has been carrying out works to bring the current settlement system to international standards, and create a favorable investment environment for investors.

More specifically, the T+2 system based on the Delivery versus Payment settlement mechanism was successfully introduced at the domestic stock market on March 31, 2020 by cooperating with market regulators and organizations specialized in infrastructure since 2017. As this was one of the main requirements of global investors, it resulted in favorable conditions to attract major institutional investors, increase trading activities, improve liquidity, and accelerate market development alongside having the Mongolian stock market be acknowledged internationally.

Leading global coal and gas supplier Australia has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison however said the plan would not include ending Australia's fossil fuel sectors.

The nation will also not set ambitious targets for 2030 - an objective of next month's COP26 global climate summit.

His plan has drawn criticism, with Murdoch University fire ecology expert Joe Fontaine saying it had "all the strength of a wet paper bag".

Australia has long dragged its heels on climate action. It has some of the highest emissions per head of population and is a massive exporter of fossil fuels.

Strategic allies the US and UK have both pledged to cut emissions faster. The UK has pledged that all its electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, while the US has announced plans to halve its emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.

"We won't be lectured by others who do not understand Australia. The Australian Way is all about how you do it, and not if you do it. It's about getting it done," Mr Morrison wrote in a newspaper column on Tuesday.

To halt the worst effects of climate change, nations have pledged to limit rising temperatures to 1.5C by 2050.

This requires cutting emissions by 45% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050, scientists say. Over 100 nations have committed to carbon neutrality.

Net zero means not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is achieved by a combination of cutting emissions as much as possible - mainly by reducing gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), which are released in the use of fossil fuels - and so-called offsetting measures, such as planting trees and carbon-capture technology.

Mr Morrison announced an investment of more than A$20bn (£11bn; $15bn) in "low-emissions technologies" over the next 20 years - such as efforts to capture carbon in soil, lower solar energy costs, and developing greener industries.

But Australia will also use more gas, at least in the short term. Most controversially, there is no plan to limit fossil fuels.

"We want our heavy industries, like mining, to stay open, remain competitive and adapt, so they remain viable for as long as global demand allows," Mr Morrison wrote.

Australia's 2030 commitment will remain a 26% cut on 2005 emissions. It is currently on track for a 30-35% reduction, the government said.

While the 2050 pledge has been widely welcomed, the government has been ferociously criticised for not offering more details.

Australia's Climate Council think tank said it was "a joke without strong emissions cuts this decade".

Many said the government has been too slow on climate action, despite seeing first-hand impacts such as bushfires, floods and drought.

"The word plan doesn't constitute a plan no matter how many times you say it," said Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.

Scott Morrison's announcement is worth noting not because it offers anything different to other countries, but because of how late to the party Australia is!

This announcement took months of political wrangling and was left down to the wire with days before the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

That the government had to make political concessions to its junior coalition partner - the National Party - shows you how complicated and politically divisive climate action is in Australia.

The Nationals represent electorates in regional areas where most high-emission industries like coal mining are based. After days of toing and froing, they backed the 'process'.

The prime minister assured Australians the target will not mean paying more for their energy bills. "Technology not taxes," he said.

He addressed regional Australians directly and said the plan won't involve shutting down coal and gas production or exports. He talked about billions of dollars invested in low-emission technologies. The government's plan would "strike a balance", Mr Morrison said.

But he failed to explain how this balance will be struck. How the government will square keeping its coal industry, for example, and reaching net zero by 2050 - and what role technology will play in all of that. Especially when Canberra won't budge on its much-criticised 2030 targets.

While this is a big moment for Australia, the details are still murky and potentially problematic on how net zero will be achieved.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (27 October 2021) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved the release of $32 million in loan and grant funding in ADB’s second tourism project to enhance and diversify sustainable tourism development in Mongolia.

The project will support the development of tourism in three aimags (provinces) of western Mongolia, focused on benefits for communities, conservation of wilderness and heritage values, and post-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) recovery and resilience. About 16,296 local residents are expected to boost their tourism-related skills and income.

“Mongolia has a small but emerging tourism sector, and developing Mongolia’s tourism sector is a high national priority to diversify the economy and create jobs,” said ADB Principal Environment Specialist Mark Bezuijen. “With this project, we will build the capacity of residents and a small but growing private sector for community-based tourism, create jobs through the establishment of tourist streets and visitor complexes, and strengthen the management of five globally important protected areas and heritage sites.”

Mongolia has a large network of protected areas, stunning wilderness, and a unique cultural heritage. Ecotourism based on nature and heritage can bring much-needed jobs and financing for communities and underresourced parks and reserves, but it also requires careful planning to ensure that visitation does not damage the values that draw tourists. The global spread of COVID-19 in 2020 created significant new challenges for tourism development in Mongolia due to national border closures and the decline—to almost zero—of international arrivals, which resulted in more than $421 million estimated losses in tourism revenue. In western Mongolia, few residents are able to derive income from tourism, while there are also few public facilities to catalyze tourism.

The project will establish a multisector approach to strengthen local tourism planning, sustainable benefits for communities, enabling infrastructure and support for protected areas. Two tourist streets will be constructed in the city centers of Khovd and Uvs aimags, along with nine women-led markets near protected areas to showcase and sell local products. A pilot tourism development program for communities and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises is part of the project and will include vocational training, a community revolving fund, youth entrepreneur incubator, and the establishment of community-based organizations.

The project will also construct the first two tourism centers in western Mongolia—the rock art and nomadic culture center in Khovd aimag and Uvs tourism complex in Uvs aimag. The Khovd center will include Mongolia’s first digital museum dedicated to rock art cultural heritage and will include an online platform to promote local tourism goods and services.

Two million dollars of the project funding is being sourced from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR). The JPFR is funded by the Government of Japan, which has supported projects in Mongolia in poverty alleviation, improving livelihoods, and safeguarding the environment over the past 20 years. The $2 million JFPR funding will provide critical support to establish small, community-managed facilities at protected areas and cultural heritage sites—including low-cost, gender-sensitive toilet systems and upgrading of small car parks—to improve visitors’ experience, protect nature and heritage, and create local jobs.

The project will begin in 2022 and is expected to be completed by 2027.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.