A delegation led by CEO of Rio Tinto Jakob Stausholm paid a courtesy call on Speaker of the State Great Khural G.Zandanshatar on January 26.

At the outset of the meeting, Mr.Jakob Stausholm thanked the Speaker for taking the time to meet the delegation, while emphasizing significant role of the Speaker to continue the Oyu Tolgoi project successfully.

“Although it was difficult for Rio Tinto to make the decisions, we are pleased that we have reached a common understanding and solutions to successfully continue the Oyu Tolgoi project and strengthen partnership. It is also gratifying to see how the democratic process is running in Mongolia,” noted Mr. Jakob Stausholm.

Congratulating for the commencement of Oyu Tolgoi underground mining operations, Speaker G.Zandanshatar noted that Mongolia shares the same values, such as respect for democracy, human rights, freedom, justice and the rule of law with its third neighbors.

“The state highest legislative body of Mongolia has been ensuring citizen’s participation and its interest. Therefore, we aimed to provide accurate information to the public by establishing Temporary Committee on Oyu Tolgoi and organized public discussions. We have achieved democratic values by working together with investors in a transparent and open manner.”

“Giving opportunity to commence the Oyu Tolgoi’s underground mining operations is a huge responsibility. We want to show to the world that making investment in Mongolia was the proper solution,” said Mr. Jakob Stausholm.

In turn, G.Zandanshatar expressed gratitude to the authorities of Rio Tinto for upholding the far-sighted and mutually beneficial principle, while noting the importance of far-sighted policy in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The parties also exchanged views on some issues such as the implementation of the resolution No:103 approved by the Parliament of Mongolia, taxes and personnel.

Present at the meeting were Head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Secretariat of the State Great Khural Ts.Jambaldorj, member of the Board of Directors of Oyu Tolgoi LLC B.Bold and other officials.

HOHHOT, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Fruit and vegetable exports to Mongolia via the Erenhot Customs in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region topped 85,000 tonnes, worth 110 million yuan (about 17.4 million U.S. dollars), in 2021, official data shows.

Erenhot, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, supplies about 80 percent of Mongolia's fruit and vegetables.

In 2018, a green channel for agricultural products was launched, which has since been putting more than 30 kinds of fruit and vegetables, including apples, oranges, lemons, onions, peppers and cucumbers, on the tables of Mongolian people.

Ma Tao with the port's customs said the two sides cooperated last year to overcome the impact of the pandemic and streamlined the clearance process, which has been effective in meeting the Mongolian people's need for fresh agricultural products.

USA Wrestling has announced that in addition to the USA vs. Iran men’s freestyle competition that is included in the Bout at the Ballpark on February 12 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, there will be a major women’s international freestyle dual meet and a featured international Greco-Roman bout.

This unique event will also feature an NCAA Div. I dual meet between the two most successful programs in history, Oklahoma State University and the University of Iowa.

Two of the world’s best women’s freestyle nations will battle when Team USA faces Mongolia, in a six-match dual meet at the Olympic weight classes.

The United States will be led by 2016 Olympic champion and three-time World champion Helen Maroulis at 57 kg. Maroulis became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic title in wrestling at the 2016 Rio Olympics, then became the first U.S. women to win two Olympic medals with her 2020 Olympic bronze at the Tokyo Games. Maroulis won World titles in 2015, 2017 and 2021. She also boasts a 2012 World silver medal and a 2014 World bronze medal.

She will be joined on the team by 2019 World champion Jacarra Winchester, who will compete at 53 kg, the weight class where she also earned a spot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team.

2021 World silver medalist and 2020 Olympian Kayla Miracle will wrestle for Team USA at 62 kg. Two-time Senior World team member and two-time Junior World champion Victoria Anthony is slated to wrestle at 50 kg.

Rounding out the U.S. women’s team are 2021 Junior World champion Kennedy Blades at 68 kg and two-time Senior World Team member Victoria Francis at 76 kg.

Mongolia will bring a talented team, with a mix of proven veterans and emerging young stars. Two of the Mongolian athletes competed at the 2020 Olympic Games, Namuuntsetseg Tsogt-ochir, who was fifth at 50 kg and Bolortuya Khurelkhuu, who was 10th at 57 kg. Both Tsogt-ochir and Bolortuya Khurelkhuu have been placewinners at past Senior World Championships.

Narangerel Erdenesukh, who has competed on five Mongolian Senior World Teams and was a 2010 Junior World bronze medalist, will wrestle at 62 kg. Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan, the 68 kg entry, was a 2018 Junior World silver medalist and 2021 U23 World bronze medalist. Rounding out the Mongolian team are rising young talents Khulan Batkhuvag at 53 kg and Ariunjargal Ganbat at 76 kg.

Additionally, there will be a special Greco-Roman showdown at 97 kg, where 2021 World bronze medalist and 2020 Olympian G’Angelo Hancock will face a top Greco-Roman star from Iran.

The final lineup for the Iranian men’s team will be announced shortly.

The Oklahoma State-Iowa collegiate meet, plus the United States-Iran men’s freestyle and United States-Mongolia women’s freestyle will take place simultaneously on two different mats beginning at 6:30 p.m. on February 12. This will mark the first time a senior-level international meet and an NCAA meet will operate in this format.

Bout at the Ballpark will be the first event at Globe Life Field, the Home of the Texas Rangers, to feature an international competition. The two wrestling mats will be located between the areas of pitcher’s mound and second base and will be placed on raised stages to improve sightlines from the seating bowl. Floor seating will be added with the Globe Life Field capacity expected to be at least 27,000 for the matches.

Tickets for Bout at the Ballpark start as $15 and are available at texasrangers.com/wrestling.

The event will be broadcast live by FloWrestling.

U.S. women’s freestyle team

50 kg – Victoria Anthony (National City, Calif./Sunkist Kids)

53 kg – Jacarra Winchester (Colorado Springs, Colo./USOPTC/Titan Mercury WC)

57 kg – Helen Maroulis (Rockville, Md./Sunkist Kids)

62 kg – Kayla Miracle (Tempe, Ariz./Sunkist Kids)

68 kg – Kennedy Blades (Broadview, Ill./Wyoming Seminary/Sunkist Kids)

76 kg – Victoria Francis (Iowa City, Iowa/Hawkeye WC/Titan Mercury WC)

Mongolia women’s freestyle team

50 kg – Namuuntsetseg Tsogt-ochir

53 kg – Khulan Batkhuyag

57 kg – Bolortuya Khurelkhuu

62 kg – Narangerel Erdenesukh

68 kg – Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan

76 kg – Ariunjargal Ganbat

U.S. Greco-Roman entry

97 kg – G’Angelo Hancock (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids)

The Ministry of Health reported today, January 27 that 2,273 СOVID-19 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. In detail, 1,183 cases were reported in Ulaanbaatar city, with 1,090 cases in 21 provinces.

It was also reported that two COVID-19 related deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 2,029. Currently, there are 11,255 people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 whilst 59,737 people with mild symptoms are being treated at home.

As of today, the coverage of 1st dose has reached 69.8 percent (2,269,389), 2nd dose – 66.7 percent (2,170,005) and 3rd dose or a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccines – 31.0 percent (1002,623) of the total population. In addition, 76,135 people (2.0 percent) have received 4th vaccine dose.

Rio Tinto’s chief executive said on Tuesday he was concerned about the Serbian prime minister’s comments against the company’s lithium project, in his first remarks after Belgrade revoked the global mining company’s exploration licences.

Bowing to environmentalists, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic pulled the plug on Rio’s lithium project last week and accused Rio of providing insufficient information to communities about the project.

“We obviously are very concerned about the comments made by the prime minister,” Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm told Reuters in an interview.

Stausholm was speaking after the company reached an agreement with Mongolia to end a long-running dispute over the $6.925 billion expansion project for the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining project.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done there (in Serbia). We have always followed the laws and regulation in Serbia as we focused on that amazing project,” he said.

“Right now we are just trying to take care of our people in the country,” he said, adding he had nothing further to say about Serbia.

Rio is reviewing the legal basis for the decision and could sue Serbia as it tries to salvage the $2.4 billion project.

The company committed to the Serbian project last year, as global miners pushed for the metals needed for the green energy transition, including lithium, which is used to make electric vehicle batteries.

The mine was slated to produce enough lithium to power 1 million electric vehicles, in addition to boric acid, used in ceramics and batteries, and sodium sulphate, used in detergents.

At full capacity, the mine was expected to produce 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate per year, making it Europe’s biggest lithium mine by output.

(By Ernest Scheyder and Praveen Menon; Editing by Chris Reese)

Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia recorded 3,080 new local infections of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the national tally to 434,735, the country's health ministry said Wednesday.

Among the latest confirmed cases, 1,815 were detected in the national capital Ulan Bator, which is home to over half of the country's population of 3.4 million.

Meanwhile, two more COVID-19 patients died in the past day, bringing the pandemic death toll to 2,027, the ministry said.

Currently, there are a total of 69,375 active COVID-19 cases across the country.

Omicron cases currently account for over 90 percent of the daily total in the country, according to the National Center for Communicable Diseases.

So far, 66.7 percent of the country's total population have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, while 1,000,344 people have received a third dose.

More than 73,400 Mongolians have received a fourth dose, which the country started to administer on Jan. 7 on a voluntary basis.

Per the order of the Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs, the regulations on issuing, extending, and nullifying the operations of foreign NGOs and monitoring their operations have been updated.

More specifically, matters concerning international organizations’ branches and representatives’ offices will be regulated by the Minister’s order instead of the order issued by the Head of the General Authority for Citizenship and Immigration of Mongolia in 2016. The regulations reflect certain issues in detail, such as the issuance of permission for running operations as a branch or representative’s office, extension, basis for nullifying the permission, and monitoring.

With the new set of regulations, it is now possible to extend permissions by 3 years based on factors such as project and program financing, implementation framework, and number of job positions that were created, and 5 years if a cooperation agreement was signed with the Government or the organization has been running stable operations for over 10 years.

As of today, there are 79 branches and representatives’ offices of international NGOs running operations in Mongolia.

On January 25, Minister of Road and Transport L.Khaltar did a working visit at MIAT Mongolian Airlines.

The Minister of Road and Transport handed over a copy of the newly amended Law on Value Added Tax, Law on Customs and the Law on Customs Tariffs and Duties to MIAT CEO B.Munkhtamir. The amendments were approved by the parliament on December 30, 2021.

During the Minister’s visit, MIAT CEO B.Munkhtamir introduced the current state of the company’s operations, financial difficulties and measures being taken as well as future plans.

Minister of Road and Transport L.Khaltar also became acquainted with the progress of maintenance repairs being done for a B737-800 aircraft, and expressed his wish for the company’s engineers to have more success on the global market in the future.

Since 2014, MIAT’s Aircraft Maintenance and Repairs Department has conducted repairs for a total of 83 aircraft owned by foreign airlines.

At the regular meeting of the Cabinet today on January 26, Minister of Energy N.Tavinbekh was tasked to carry out the corresponding works to establish a power supply agreement with Oyu Tolgoi LLC.

As the draft of the agreement on supplying power for Oyu Tolgoi’s mining operations from the country’s central power grid has been completed, the Government has given the green light for the agreement to be signed. In connection, the two sides will be holding a meeting at the Ministry of Energy today.

Currently, the mining company imports an average of 170 MW or 1.3 billion kWh of electricity from China each year. By sourcing their power domestically through the agreement, it becomes possible to keep the funds in the country. This will serve as significant support for the financing of the project on constructing the Tavantolgoi thermal power plant, the Minister highlighted.

Minister of Energy N.Tavinbekh said, “The agreement will be established for 20 years, with a minimum of USD 120 million worth of power to be supplied annually. In order to supply electricity to Oyu Tolgoi, certain preparations are needed such as establishing a power plant at Tavantolgoi. The power plant’s construction will take four years at the very minimum. However, with the plant’s first block put into operation from 2024, it will become possible to supply power for the Oyu Tolgoi project.”

Until preparations are completed by the side of Mongolia, the mining company will continue to source its power from Inner Mongolia Power International Cooperation Company of China.

The feasibility study for the construction project on the natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and China through the territory of Mongolia was finalized on January 25. A protocol finalizing the feasibility study was signed between Mongolia and Russia in a ceremony at Shangri-La Hotel. About the event, we interviewed Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia S.Amarsaikhan.

-What plans have been finalized with the approval of the feasibility study?

-The leaders of Russia’s Gazprom Company came to Mongolia on March 12, 2021, developing the project’s feasibility study and carrying out surveillance and design work. As a result, an action plan was approved and the feasibility study was completed by December 15, 2021. What was confirmed by the feasibility study is that firstly, the project is feasible and secondly, it is economically beneficial.

Thirdly, we have completed the feasibility study, agreeing that a 975 km pipeline could be constructed along railway lines across six aimags from Kyakhta, Russia to Altanbulag and from Altanbulag checkpoint to Zamyn-Uud, and approved it today. The project now enters the actualization phase, meaning we will now commence designing and detailed engineering studies.

Talks have gotten underway with the Russian side to take some from the natural gas to be transported through the territory of Mongolia to satisfy domestic need.

A number of matters including how much and what works to carry out and what technical works will be allocated here are arising in relation to the feasibility study. In accordance with the study, a total of over 7,000 individuals will be employed and five compressor stations will be used for the implementation of the project. It is a mega project that also entails the countries involved sourcing their energy from gas power stations. The feasibility study covered everything including the project size and environmental and safety aspects. A major project is beginning to build a gas pipeline with an annual capacity of 50 billion cubic meters.

-How many soums of what aimags will the pipeline go across?

-It will go across 20 soums of six aimags including Selenge, Tuv, Dornogobi, and Gobisumber, and Ulaanbaatar city.

-To what extent will Mongolia be involved in the pipeline project? Will it get gas?

-Talks have gotten underway with the Russian side to take some from the natural gas to be transported through the territory of Mongolia to satisfy domestic need. Moreover, we have set objectives to build one or two power stations for a natural gas source in Mongolia, build new residential areas along the pipeline, supply them with gas for further development, and gradually move to natural gas.

-What documents will be signed next and how will the talks unfold? When will the construction begin? How long will the project be implemented and when will it finish?

-With the approval of the feasibility study, we are moving to detailed planning and actual designing, which are expected to take a year to year and a half. The construction is planned to begin by 2024 and preliminary estimates suggest the project will be completed in 2027-2028. The project costs have been covered in the feasibility study and are being estimated. Further, as the construction and technical plans are developed, it will become clear how much work and budget will be required.

-What responsibilities will Mongolia have? Will it be required to invest from the budget and other sources?

-A lot has been done in this regard and it will be discussed during the next round of talks. The project and talks involve three countries, Mongolia, Russia, and China. As the talks with Russia go on and necessary documents are developed, the efforts will continue with talks with China. The actions will be taken concurrently. They key principle is that we seek an opportunity for a fruitful partnership that benefits all three parties, which is why it will take a lot of effort.

Needless to say, all of this has to be economically beneficial to Mongolia. We are considering many aspects of this such as the amount of profit Mongolia gets and the cost of sourcing from the pipeline, project workforce, and maintenance. We reckon there will be more gains aside from the cost for constructing the pipeline through Mongolia. These will become clearer as the project is carried out.

-It is a project involving three countries. Has the Russian side informed of its talks with the Chinese side?

-We have been informed of talks between the other two countries, which will continue. The three countries will have concurrent talks.

-Have the sides settled on what percent of the project workforce will be from Mongolia?

-Mongolia has regulations for the workforce supply, in accordance with which, works will be carried out. They key workforce might arrive from Russia and other countries since the project is an elaborate one that has not been implemented in Mongolia before. We are also beginning the training of local workforce. Workforce will be recruited locally after having them study at Russian universities and colleges and do their training on-site, bringing teachers from abroad, and collaborating with the Mongolian University of Science and Technology and other technical universities. As I said earlier, a large skilled workforce will be in demand, as 1,500 to 7,000 people will work on the project.