Mongolia already has encountered and will continue to experience significant warming and drying as a result of the climate crisis (certain). Temperatures are rising faster than the global average (certain). This is already being felt by communities across Mongolia, challenging traditional pastoralist–herder lifestyles and catalyzing a strong rural-urban migration trend. The higher temperatures are likely to increase the frequency and severity of heatwaves and droughts, especially in the south and south-west. Seasons will become more pronounced (highly likely) and the peculiar and uniquely Mongolian phenomenon of the Dzud, which creates drought-like summer conditions followed by extremely cold, harsh winters, will become more frequent and fiercer (highly likely). Extreme rainfall will become more intense and more frequent, with more rain falling during very wet days, and this may translate into increased intense rainfall-linked extreme events such as landslides, flash floods and land erosion (highly likely). The impacts that these changes will have on livelihoods and health, without substantial global action and national adaptation, are significant.

Climate change has the potential to trigger wide-ranging and strong negative feedback loops between livelihoods and health. The impacts of rising temperatures, changes in rainfall, more winter snowfall and mounting pressures on water resources all negatively affect the traditionally important agricultural sector and especially livestock herding.

The Dzud, in particular, can cause catastrophic loss of livestock in the harsh winters, which hugely affects rural incomes and has ramifications throughout markets creating price spikes and supply gaps. The increased frequency and intensity of natural hazardrelated disasters like the Dzud, intense rainfall, heavy snowfall, dust storms and floods resulted in a doubling of the damage to livelihoods over a 20-year period (UNDP 2019). Pasture degradation has been increasing in recent years across the country following worsening droughts, higher temperatures and the drying up of water sources. With the majority of the population overwhelmingly dependent on their livestock, climate shocks have led to declining incomes due to a decrease in the weight of the animals as well as in the yields of wool and cashmere.

Climate change will impact human health directly through more extreme weather events such as the Dzud, which has been linked to reduced growth in children. It also increases the incidence of respiratory illnesses as people remain indoors burning coal – a necessary measure to ward off the extreme cold, but one that intensifies their exposure to indoor air pollution. Climate change will also indirectly impact people’s health through environmentally mediated changes, notably, the growing risk of zoonotic or tick-borne diseases. The proximity of pastoralist-herders to their livestock as they range across pasturelands, hosting natural reservoirs of serious diseases (such as Plague), highlights the importance of One Health approaches. Whilst undernutrition is not a major issue, micronutrient deficiencies are high across the whole population and especially in children. As climate change continues to catalyze rural-urban migration, urban populations increasingly consume abundant highly processed, low quality, cheap food contributing to the high burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). A number of gaps were found related to the impacts of climate change on mental health, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and on water quality and supplies and how this relates to the health of pastoralist herders.

Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's COVID-19 tally rose to 176,993 on Wednesday, with 1,433 new local infections registered during the past 24 hours, according to the country's health ministry.

The death toll rose to 890 as three more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, said the ministry.

Over 7,560 samples were tested nationwide in the past day, and the country has conducted more than 3.5 million COVID-19 tests so far, the ministry said in a statement.

The Asian country with a population of around 3.3 million reported its first imported COVID-19 case in March 2020 and confirmed its first locally transmitted case in November last year.

The disease has spread to all of its 21 provinces.

South Korea has expanded its key food export target destinations to include ‘New Northern’ countries such as Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan after seeing record-setting sales of both fresh and processed food exports take off in the region.

Aug 9 (Reuters) - Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ.TO) said an independent review of$1.4 billion in cost overruns at the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia suggested that the project's troubles were not caused by the geology issues that mine operator Rio Tinto blamed in 2019.

The review "raises certain questions in relation to the project management process" around the cost blowout and delay, Turquoise Hill said.

"Rio Tinto will engage with the OT (Oyu Tolgoi) Board as soon as we have had the opportunity to review the report in detail," Australia's Rio Tinto (RIO.AX), (RIO.L) said in an emailed statement.

Rio owns 51% of Turquoise Hill, which owns 66% of the Oyu Tolgoi mine. The rest of the mine is owned by the government of Mongolia.

Costs to expand the Oyu Tolgoi mine, Rio's biggest copper growth project, have ballooned up to $6.75 billion from its original budget of $5.3 billion in 2016, raising friction over funding with Turquoise Hill.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news.

The border port of Erenhot in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has seen its import and export cargo volumes exceed 10 million tonnes for five consecutive years, according to China Railway Hohhot Bureau Group Co. Ltd.

As of Wednesday, the cargo volumes this year had reached 10.02 million tonnes, up 2.8 percent year on year, while 1,497 China-Europe freight trains had passed through the port since the beginning of the year, an increase of 20.5 percent year on year.

The Erenhot Port is the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, serving 51 China-Europe freight train routes.

Launched in 2011, the China-Europe freight train service is considered a significant part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aimed at boosting trade between China and BRI countries. The service has remained a reliable transportation channel amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 957 new locally transmitted COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Asian country to 175,560, the country's health ministry said Tuesday.

A total of 5,605 samples were tested across the country in the past day, the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the death toll climbed to 887 after three more patients died from the disease in the past day, the ministry added.

The country reported its first imported COVID-19 case in March 2020 and confirmed its first locally transmitted case in November last year. The viral disease has spread to all 21 provinces of the country.

The PV project is part of a program aimed at deploying 40.5 MW of solar and wind capacity in the country’s western and Altai-Uliastai regions.

Mongolia's Ministry of Energy has issued a tender to seek engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors for the construction of a 10 MW solar park.

The Moron Solar PV project is planned for the homonymous municipality, in the Khövsgöl Aimag region in northern Mongolia, and is part of the Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector Project, which is being co-managed by the Government of Mongolia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The goal is to deploy 40.5 MW of solar and wind capacity in the country’s western and Altai-Uliastai regions.

The US$66.2 million initiative also includes another 10 MW worth of solar plants in Altai City, a 500 kW solar-wind hybrid project with storage in Altai County, a 10 MW wind project in Umunogovi, and a 5 MW wind farm in Telmen. Interested EPC companies have until October 20, 2021, to submit their proposals.

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Overall, Mongolia had an installed PV capacity of around 100 MW at the end of August, Myagmardorj Enhkmend, the Secretary General of the Mongolian Renewables Industries Association, told pv magazine. However, most of this capacity – around 90 MW – was installed between 2016 and 2018, as a result of auctions held in previous years. “The government is still not announcing any auction for new renewable projects and it's becoming a big challenge to increase the capacity of renewable energy in the country,” he said.

The nation’s total theoretical power generation capacity, according to the ADB, is 1,158 MW. Of that power fleet, however, only 969 MW appears to be online due to aging, coal-based conventional power plants. The country imports a large portion of its power from neighboring countries.

Mongolia has increased its official gold purchases this year, buying a total of 11 metric tons so far, according to local media reports citing the country's central bank.

The average gold price was at around $58 per gram, the central bank said. This total is as of July.

The central bank added that buying gold helps Mongolia with economic stability.

Mongolia's buying comes at a time when gold prices are still coming off their August 2020 record highs. Year-to-date gold is down more than 9%.

The most recent selloff in gold, which began on Friday, was triggered by a stronger-than-expected U.S. employment report. The July gain of 943,000 positions pushed the U.S. dollar and the U.S. Treasury yields higher on speculation that the Federal Reserve could announce its tapering plans reasonably soon. This created a bearish environment for gold.

At the time of writing, December Comex gold futures were trading at $1,727.70, down 2.01% on the day, after dropping below $1,680 an ounce earlier in the session.

Central banks around the world have been stepping up their gold purchases this year, taking advantage of lower prices following stellar 2020 gains.

For example, the Brazilian central bank increased its precious metals holdings by more than 52% in June after buying an additional 41.8 metric tons.

Thailand also purchased 90.2 tons in April and May. Kazakhstan made headlines earlier this year after it bought 9.9 tons.

Serbia's central bank said this year that: "Long term, gold is the most significant guardian and guarantor of protection against inflationary and other forms of financial risks." The country is planning to boost holdings of the precious metal to 50 tons from 36.3 tons.

In a June report, the World Gold Council said that 21% of central banks expect to increase their gold reserves within the next year.

By Anna Golubova

For Kitco News

An independent investigation team concluded that the cost overrun and schedule delay in the underground expansion of Oyu Tolgoi project were not due to geotechnical conditions.

On August 9, the conclusion was presented in a report to the working group in charge of negotiating with Rio Tinto regarding Oyu Tolgoi.

About the report, Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry G.Yondon said, “Rio Tinto informed the government of Mongolia of the cost overrun and delay in the underground expansion in July 2019. To be specific, it said that, due to unexpected geotechnical and ground conditions, the project could experience a delay of up to 30 months and a cost overrun of USD 1.2-1.9 billion. However, independent experts concluded that the delay and cost overrun are not directly related to geotechnical issues,”

“We established an agreement with an expert group with 20-40 years of experience this March. The group’s report was reviewed and verified by experienced individuals who worked as project managers for Rio Tinto.”

Seoul (CNN Business)Samsung's vice chairman — and de facto leader — Lee Jae-yong is to be released on parole this week, South Korea's Justice Ministry said on Monday.

Lee, also known as Jay Y. Lee, was sentenced to two and a half years behind bars in January after the Seoul High Court found him guilty of embezzlement and bribery. He will now be released on August 13, the country's justice minister announced in a televised briefing.

Minister Park Beom-kye said that Lee is among 810 other prisoners who have been granted parole on the occasion of the country's Liberation Day, which marks the liberation of Korea from Japanese imperial rule in 1945. Last year, more than 600 prisoners were released on Liberation Day.

"In consideration of the overcrowded condition of correctional facilities which are vulnerable to infectious diseases and to help overcome our economic condition, the number of persons granted parole has been significantly increased this year compared to last year," Park said.

Samsung declined to comment on today's briefing.

Lee may not be able to return to work. He is subject to a five-year employment ban under South Korean law, and parolees are not permitted to take overseas business trips until their term is finished. Lee can apply to the Justice Ministry for an exception, but it's unclear if he has done so.

Lee was caught up in a massive influence-peddling scandal that brought down the government of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Park herself is spending some two decades in prison in connection with the case.

Lee had been sentenced to five years in prison in August 2017 on bribery and embezzlement charges but he walked free after less than a year when an appeals court threw out some of the charges and suspended the sentence.

However, Lee was sent back to prison in January after being sentenced to two and a half years in a retrial. His father Lee Kun-hee, the company's chairman, died last year after being in a coma since suffering a heart attack in 2014. The younger Lee had been operating as Samsung's de facto leader.

Lee is currently undergoing a separate trial over a controversial 2015 merger that helped him tighten control over the company.

Prosecutors said the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was undertaken in a manner that allegedly benefited Lee and allowed him to gain a tighter grip on Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel of his family's sprawling conglomerate.