China's energy bureau gave nod to construction of a new coal mine in Inner Mongolia after several mines were allowed to expand capacity, in a move to boost coal supply and bring down fuel costs for power generation.

Dongping coal mine, located in Zhunger mining area in coal-rich Inner Mongolia, is designed with annual production capacity of 4 million tonnes as well as a same-scale coal washing plant, according to an official document issued by the National Energy Administration.

The move will help further push ahead with construction of Shendong coal production base, one of the 14 large coal bases in China, which consists of Shenfu and Dongsheng mining areas.

A total 20.3 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of capacity expansion has been put on agenda in Inner Mongolia since this year, in response to the central government's call to increase coal production and boost capacity.

In 2021, Inner Mongolia added 169 Mtpa of coal capacity through capacity expansion at 115 coal mines in five batches.

(Writing by Tammy Yang Editing by Harry Huo)

For any questions, please contact us by inquiry@fwenergy.com or +86-351-7219322.

A giant onshore wind power project with a generation capacity of 1 million kilowatts was put into operation after being connected to the national power grid for electric power supply in the Xing'an League of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on June 29, 2022.

It signifies the entry into operation of China's first 1 million kilowatt-grade single-unit onshore wind power project. The mega project has been built and installed in the first phase of China's Xing'an League Three Million Kilowatts Wind Power Base built by China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). The construction of the other two 1 million kilowatt-grade onshore wind power projects in the region is still underway.

The first 1 million-kilowatt project, which is a mountainous wind farm, is capable of generating more than 3 billion kWh on-grid electricity annually. It can save more than 920,000 tonnes of standard coal and reduce nearly 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

Relevant organizations of Mongolia and China have reached an agreement to open the air border between the two countries and resume regular flights.

In particular, flights to the cities of Guangzhou and Hohhot in China will begin to be conducted starting from July 4 and 5.

Due to the pandemic, flights between the two countries were halted on January 27, 2020. Based on the talks that were held between the two sides, the side of China informed that it is possible to conduct weekly flights to its cities with the exception of Shanghai and Beijing.

Earlier this month, the Cabinet made a decision to allow MIAT Mongolian Airlines and Aero Mongolia companies to conduct weekly flights to Guangzhou and Hohhot respectively. While Mongolian aviation companies will be conducting the flights for one week, Chinese aviation companies will be in charge of the next.

The passengers are required to be isolated for 5 days prior to the flight and 14 days after their arrival in China. If more than five passengers show signs of COVID-19, the flight may be canceled.

The frequency of flights to China will increase in the future when the COVID-19 situation in China subsides.

On June 29, the Cabinet made a decision to offer the shares of 25 state-owned enterprises to the public through the stock exchange in 2022-2023, approving the list of the enterprises.

The list of state-owned enterprises that will be subject to the Cabinet’s decision includes 25 companies, such as the Mongolian Stock Exchange, Mongolian Telecom Company, National Reinsurance, Netcom, IT Park, and companies in charge of road maintenance.

The decision is aimed at improving the governance of state-owned and partly state-owned companies, improving management, and making the company’s structure smaller and more efficient, which is in line with the Government’s Productivity Recovery, one of the core objectives of the New Revival Policy.

During the press conference that was held to introduce the Cabinet’s decisions, Director of the Policy Coordination on State Property and Regulation Agency B.Tsengel said, “First of all, 34 percent of the Mongolian Stock Exchange will be publicly traded to the public in the fourth quarter of this year. Whereas, shares of Mongolian Telecom Company and National Reinsurance will be offered in the first quarter of 2023. The issue of the remaining companies will be resolved in the fourth quarter of next year”.

The Cabinet also decided to start merging some of the state-owned enterprises. For example, the decision to liquidate the ‘Mongol Us’ company was made at the meeting to avoid duplication of functions with the Water Agency, which was established recently.

Instructions have been given to the relevant officials to carry out a prompt study on the restructuring, liquidation, and merger of a number of state-owned enterprises.

Mongolia reported 49 new coronavirus infections, the coronavirus statistics as of June 29 showed.

29 of them were revealed among persons who had contact with the infected in Ulaanbaatar, 20 other cases were detected in regions.

No new imported cases of COVID-19 were reported.

The death toll makes 2,118 as of June 29.

Mongolia will boost efforts to protect forests from harmful insects, the country's environment minister said Wednesday.

The government will spend 2 billion Mongolian Tugriks (about 638,500 U.S. dollars) to control pest outbreaks or eradicate insect pests, Mongolian Minister of Environment and Tourism Bat-Ulzii Bat-Erdene told a press conference.

It is estimated that insect pests have infected more than 732,700 hectares of forest in Mongolia, said the minister.

The fight against forest pests is part of the country's tree-planting campaign, which was launched last year and aims to plant at least a billion trees by 2030 to combat desertification.

According to the ministry, only 7.9 percent of Mongolia's total land area is covered by forests.

Mongolian rock band The Hu have unveiled details of a full UK and European tour this year – check out the dates below.

The band will perform at Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Cardiff, Birmingham, Belfast and Glasgow, as well as a huge show at London’s Roundhouse on December 9.

Tickets for the shows are available here from Friday July 1 at 9am and you can see all the UK dates here:

NOVEMBER

28 – Manchester, Academy

30 – Leeds, Stylus

DECEMBER

1 – Nottingham, Rock City

2 – Cardiff, Great Hall

3 – Birmingham, O2 Institute

5 – Dublin, 3Olympia

6 – Belfast, Ulster Hall

07 – Glasgow, SWG3 (Galvanizers)

09 – London, Roundhouse

Municipality organizations will cooperate with 70 national IT companies to create a smart city where citizens can work and live, using information technology solutions in every sector. The "Ulaanbaatar Digital transition" to be implemented in 2022-2024 is the first major public-private partnership project, and its technological solutions and plans were presented.

During the presentation, Governor of the Capital City and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar D.Sumiyabazar said, “Transitioning into digital governance is the ideal way to keep public and private sector open and transparent. Therefore, to keep pace with the world's development, the largest social and economic center of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar city, must make a digital transition. The transition will be carried out in cooperation with 70 major IT companies operating in Mongolia. It will provide an opportunity to address many of the issues facing Ulaanbaatar, increase government productivity, and operate in a corruption-free, transparent, and open manner”.

Director of the Capital City Department of Digital Development and Information Technology O.Chinzorig introduced the “One Brain Integrated System” project. He said, “In 2016, the digital transition project for public services in Ulaanbaatar was launched. Thus, in 2018, the E-SERVICE system was introduced to increase the quality and accessibility of public services provided by the capital city and to ensure transparency. In the framework of this work, 133 types of services of 20 municipality organizations have been digitalized, which is a major project that laid the foundation for the current unified government E-Mongolia system. In addition, through the UB ERP system, more than 30,000 civil servants have been able to operate quickly and easily and save costs.

As of today, more than 10 million services have been provided through the E-Mongolia mobile application. It is estimated that Mongolia's goal of becoming a digital nation has been consolidated, saving about MNT 167 billion. We have implemented 26 projects since 2016”.

In this context, the project to be implemented in 2022-2024 will consist of three sections, including Digital Governance, Integrated Smart Traffic System, and Safe City projects. Moreover, 12 sub-projects and 27 measures will be implemented and carried out until 2024.

DIGITAL GOVERNANCE PROJECT

In order to simplify and ensure transparency in running a business in the capital city, the Online Business Center’s Service Registration System was launched on January 1, this year. As a result, 74 types of business permissions provided by districts to businesses and individuals have been digitalized. To date, 126,504 citizens and business entities have applied to this system, and requests of 1311 citizens and business entities have been resolved. In the second phase of the project, the construction services in the capital city will be digitalized within this year, and relevant studies are being conducted to introduce them to the system.

INTEGRATED SMART TRAFFIC SYSTEM PROJECT

Seven measures are planned to be implemented by 2024 to create a comprehensive system that meets the needs and requirements of the road and transport stakeholders. Preparations are underway to install RFID devices at 138 intersections in the capital city to enable basic data collection and analysis by 2022. Also, traffic cameras will be completely renewed at the first lane of Peace Avenue and other major intersections. This will lead to reductions in crime, and violations, whilst improving traffic etiquette and reducing time lost in incident handling that causes congestion.

In addition, Radio-frequency identification (RFID) will be installed in traffic light control systems and payment systems which will lead to increasing the payment options for entry and exit through UB checkpoints, and will facilitate payment methods such as introducing prepaying and post-paying features. Furthermore, we plan to improve the information exchange capacity of the road and transportation-related organizations, renovate the “Management Center” with information systems and equipment, and exchange experiences with major cities including Singapore”.

SAFE CITY PROJECT

Based on a smart telecamera system, crimes will be prevented, coordination of functional organizations will be improved, the exchange of information will be enhanced, and a safe Ulaanbaatar city will be created. Within the framework of the project, 13,944 telecameras are planned to be installed at 5426 points of the capital city under Order A/295, 2019.

CAPITAL CITY TRAINING, RESEARCH, AND PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY

Shares in Ivanhoe Electric (NYSE America, TSX: IE), the latest endeavour of mining magnate Robert Friedland, were falling on their trading debut on Tuesday morning after the company raised as much as $169 million in an initial public offering on Monday.

The exploration and development company, which owns properties in Arizona, Utah and Montana, along with a battery storage business, sold on Monday almost 14.4 million shares for $11.75 each, slightly short of the $12.5 each it aimed for.

The transaction, however, was still the biggest US IPO since May 12, when oilfield services company ProFrac Holding Corp. raised $328 million, including so-called greenshoe shares.

Only $4.9 billion has been raised on US exchanges this year, compared with almost $102 billion during the first six months of 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Analysts had predicted a better market debut as Ivanhoe Electric is focused on critical minerals that are key to the global energy transition.

“We believe the United States is significantly underexplored and will yield major new discoveries of these metals,” Ivanhoe Electric said in a regulatory filing. “Our mineral projects focus on copper, gold, silver, nickel, cobalt, vanadium and the platinum group metals.”

Shares in the company, which spent $39 million on exploration last year and posted a $59 million loss, were trading last in New York (NYSEAMERICAN: IE) at $10.42 or 11.32% lower than their sale price.

Ivanhoe Electric owns the Santa Cruz copper project in Arizona, which it says is the second largest copper deposit in the US.

It also holds rights to the Tintic gold-copper mine in Utah and the Hog Heaven silver-gold-copper project in Montana.

Ivanhoe Electric plans to use part of the proceeds from the IPO to fund the construction and deployment of its Typhoon electrical pulse-powered geophysical surveying transmitter technology.

Friedland made his fortune from the Voisey’s Bay nickel project in Canada in the 1990s. Since then, he has been involved in some of the biggest mineral discoveries in the world, including the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia and the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Forbes estimates Friedland’s holdings are worth more than $2 billion.

(With files from Bloomberg)

Hemmed in between China, the world’s most populous country, and Russia, its largest, is landlocked Mongolia—a former socialist “people’s republic” that’s visited by only 20,000 Americans per year.

And except for its most famous native son, Genghis Khan, who in 1206 founded the Mongol Empire—the largest contiguous land empire in history—Mongolia is still relatively unknown to the outside world.

Batbayar Ulziidelger really wants to change that.

The jovial, 49-year-old diplomat, Mongolia’s ambassador to the United States since November 2021, was formerly an advisor to the prime minister on foreign policy. Before that, he spent 20 years in the private sector as director, founder and CEO of various tourism, technology and consulting companies.

Among other things, Ulziidelger helped develop the “Travel Responsibly” national campaign. He also assisted in formulating “Vision 2050,” Mongolia’s long-term development policy.

Born in the eastern city of Choibalsan and raised in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, Ulziidelger earned his bachelor’s degree in English in 1994, another bachelor’s in computer engineering from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in 1998, and an MBA from that same university in 2000.

“Mongolia is a democratic country, one of the only democracies in Central Asia. Historically, the Mongol Empire was one of the biggest in the world,” he said, adding that among his people’s ancient innovations were three types of passports—including a golden one conferring diplomatic immunity.

In 1987, Mongolia established diplomatic ties with the United States. In July 2021, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman paid a three-day visit to Ulaanbaatar, marking the most senior visit of its kind since then-Secretary of State John Kerry spent six hours there in 2016.

Huge territory, few people

Covering 1.56 million square km, Mongolia ranks 18th in size worldwide, slightly smaller than Iran and a bit larger than Peru. Yet it has only 3.3 million inhabitants—about the same as Connecticut-sized Puerto Rico. That gives the predominantly Buddhist country a density of only 2 people per square km, making it the most sparsely inhabited sovereign jurisdiction on Earth.

Even today, between 500,000 and 600,000 Mongolians are nomads, living off the grassy steppes and moving from place to place exactly as their ancestors did thousands of years ago.

Mongolian Ambassador Batbayar Ulziidelger holds up a painting “The Earth,” which depicts the poem, Blue Eye of the Cosmos, by B. Yavuukhulan. It is written in traditional vertical Mongolian script. (Photo by Larry Luxner)

“Mongolian hospitality is one of the most precious things in the world. We invite guests as our own family,” Ulziidelger told the Washington Diplomat in a recent interview at his embassy in Georgetown. On the wall behind his desk is the national emblem of Mongolia. It depicts a blue circle symbolizing the sky, in the middle of which is a gold wind horse, with sun, moon and fire symbols derived from Buddhist and Mongolian folklore.

“We have a huge territory, so if you’re lost in the middle of nowhere and you come to a family, this family must invite you,” he explained. “That’s why we don’t lock our doors.”

This passionate traveler has already visited 101 countries—but none of them, he says, compares to his own.

“Once you land in Mongolia, you feel the freedom. The breeze almost kisses you,” he said. “Whenever I return home, I say, ‘God blessed me to be born Mongolian.’”

In 1997, the future ambassador walked from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad in southern Mongolia, a solo journey of 700 km backpacking through the Gobi Desert. The trip took three weeks.

A peaceful democratic revolution

Nearly 20 years later, Ulziidelger—a karate enthusiast and father of two who speaks fluent English, Japanese and Russian—received Mongolia’s Order of the Polar Star. And in 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs named him Mongolia’s cultural envoy.

“Mongolia is a paradise of adventure and outdoor tourism. That’s why people who trek, hunt and go horseback riding love it,” he said. “You can go to a five-star hotel and relax with your family on the beach, but this is not tourism,” said Ulziideldger, who’s even started a Facebook group for Mongolians who enjoy traveling; it has 766,000 followers.

These days, however, the ambassador is thinking not so much about adventure travel, but more on the impact Russia’s devastating war with Ukraine may ultimately have on his own country.

A socialist republic until 1990, Mongolia shares a 3,450-km border with Russia to the north, and a 4,630-km border with China to the south. Both of its neighbors are nuclear powers with aggressive ambitions whose relations with the United States have worsened dramatically in recent years.

Mongolia adopted the Cyrillic alphabet in the 1950s, due to Soviet influence. In addition, thousands of Mongolian youths have studied not only in Moscow but also at Ukrainian universities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv.

“In 1989, a lot of people came out to protest perestroika,” the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system promoted by the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ulziidelger said. “I was also demonstrating, going out into the streets with my friends. My parents were worried. At that time, I had a dream that people would decide their futures for themselves, that they could work and earn money.”

“Windows,” an intricate work by Mongolian painter Tsolmon, hangs in the Mongolian Embassy in Washington. (Photo by Larry Luxner)

But unlike many former Soviet republics, “Mongolia had no shooting, killing or violence. We shifted very humbly and gently.”

Keeping a delicate balance between China and Russia

After the Soviet Union’s collapse, Mongolia witnessed a peaceful democratic revolution in January 1990 that led to the introduction of a multiparty system and market economy. The former Marxist-Leninist Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party gave way to the current Mongolian People’s Party, a new constitution in 1992, and no more “People’s Republic of Mongolia,” but just simply Mongolia.

“After 1990, everything changed,” Ulziidelger said. “A lot of people started to study abroad, mainly in the United States, Japan, South Korea, UK, Germany, France and Sweden.”

These days, he said, close to 180,000 Mongolians live abroad, most of them in South Korea. About 40,000 have emigrated to the United States, where the biggest communities are in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and suburban Washington, DC. There’s even talk of direct flights between Ulaanbaatar and US cities such as Los Angeles or Seattle.

Fred Walker, Hologic’s vice-president of worldwide marketing, talks with Mongolian Ambassador Batbayar Ulziidelger at a recent event sponsored by the Washington Diplomat. (Photo by Ursula McNamara)

US-Mongolian trade currently stands at $260 million a year, with more than 30% of Mongolia’s revenues derived from mining—copper, gold, silver and iron ore. Among the country’s more far-reaching goals: boost trade with China to $10 billion a year, while planting one billion trees across Mongolia by 2030, in a dramatic effort to reduce desertification and slow climate change.

To this day, Mongolia is heavily dependent on imports from Russia, particularly oil. Not wishing to upset its huge northern neighbor, it was therefore no surprise that Mongolia abstained—along with 34 other countries—when the UN General Assembly voted 141-5 to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on March 2.

Yet that doesn’t mean Mongolia rejects Ukraine’s sovereignty or territorial integrity, Ulziidelger said.

“To be honest, we’re deeply concerned about the situation in Ukraine, and saddened at the loss of many precious lives,” he said. “That’s why it’s extremely important that all parties urgently facilitate a ceasefire and de-escalate tensions through negotiations and diplomacy. Otherwise, this escalation of tension will have other unforeseen consequences, seriously affecting peace and stability—not only in Europe but the world.”

Vast Mongolia, squeezed between China and Russia, treads carefully | Washington Diplomat (washdiplomat.com)