The world’s second-largest miner, Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO), announced Wednesday an agreement to explore the deployment of renewable energy technology company Heliogen’s solar technology at Rio’s borates mine in Boron, California.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Heliogen will deploy its proprietary, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology at the Boron operation, where it will use heat from the sun to generate and store carbon-free energy to power the mine’s industrial processes.

In a press release, the companies said they will begin detailed planning and securing government permits for the project, with the aim of starting operations from 2022.

They will also use the Boron installation to begin exploring the potential for deployments of Heliogen’s technology at Rio Tinto’s other operations around the world to supply process heat, which accounted for 14% of Scope 1 & 2 emissions from the Group’s managed operations in 2020.

Heliogen’s high-temperature solar technology is designed to replace fossil fuels with sunlight cost-effectively for a range of industrial processes.

“This partnership with Heliogen has the potential to significantly reduce our emissions at Boron by using this groundbreaking solar technology, and we look forward to exploring opportunities across our global portfolio,” Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm said in the statement.

At Rio Tinto’s Boron mine, the company’s proprietary technology will use AI to control a network of mirrors that concentrate sunlight to capture energy used to make steam. Heliogen’s system will also store the captured energy in the form of heat, allowing it to power nighttime operations and providing the same uninterrupted energy stream offered by legacy fuels.

The Boron operation mines and refines borates into products ranging from fertilizers to construction materials and is producing lithium carbonate from a demonstration plant. The site currently generates steam using a natural gas cogeneration plant and natural gas fired boilers.

Heliogen’s installation will supplement these energy sources by generating up to 35,000 pounds per hour of steam to power operations, with the potential to reduce carbon emissions at the Boron site by around 7% – equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road.

Rio will also assess the potential for larger-scale use of the Heliogen technology at Boron to reduce the site’s carbon footprint by up to 24%.

“Addressing climate change effectively will require businesses, governments and society to work together through partnerships like this one, to explore innovative new solutions throughout the entire value chain,” Stausholm said.

“Our work with Heliogen is part of Rio Tinto’s commitment to spend approximately $1 billion on emissions reduction initiatives through to 2025 and our commitment to work with world-leading technology providers to achieve this goal.”

The United States has dropped 11 points in 10 years in the global ranking for freedom.

A new report from democracy watchdog Freedom House charting the political and civil rights of different nations has the US down significantly because of racial inequality, the negative impact of money in politics, and the rise in polarisation between Americans.

Coming in at 83 out of 100 possible points, the US is now tied with countries such as Panama, Romania, and Croatia, and behind Argentina and Mongolia. America is outstripped by the United Kingdom and Chile which both got 93 points, Costa Rica at 91 and Slovakia at 90.

The nordic trio of Finland, Sweden, and Norway were the only countries getting full marks at 100 points. America's neighbour to the north, Canada, came in at 98 points.

The United States went from 94 points in 2010 to 83 points in 2020. The drop, analysed by Freedom House's vice president of research and analysis, Sarah Repucci, comes after events taking place during the last several months that "amounted to an acute crisis for democracy in the United States", she writes.

She told The Guardian: “Dropping 11 points is unusual, especially for an established democracy, because they tend to be more stable in our scores."

Freedom House usually does not write a report focusing on the ins and outs of American democracy, but did so this year because of the stark developments that came at the detriment of freedom.

These developments include the racial inequality in voting and criminal justice, with Black and Native Americans being most acutely affected. That public trust in the government has been eroded thanks to the ways wealthier Americans used their finances to buy influence is another factor in the point-drop.

Partisan gerrymandering, meaning the process of drawing districts in a way that benefit one party over another, has lead to levels of polarisation so high that it's a threat to democracy, the report argues.

"The practice of partisan gerrymandering ... has the most corrosive and radicalising effect on US politics, generating a multitude of districts in which one party can be virtually certain of victory," the report states.

Ms Repucci told The Guardian: “We’re really concerned about these longer-term challenges that aren’t going to be addressed with quick fixes, that were kind of highlighted during the Trump administration and, in some cases, taken advantage of, by that administration.

The report makes three broad recommendations based on these issues to bring American democracy up to scratch.

The report suggests that the US "lower barriers to voting as part of a comprehensive effort to address racial injustice," and it argues that campaign finance laws be tightened to "curb the influence of money in politics". Finally, "independent redistricting commissions" should be established to "reduce political polarisation and extremism," the report concludes.

While state Republicans hope to halt the trends of states moving towards Democratic rule in its tracks by making it harder to vote, as reported by Vox, Democrats on the national level are pushing a voting rights package that addresses the issues stated in the report.

The House passed a massive voting bill earlier this month, but it faces an "uphill battle" in the Senate, The New York Times reports.

“American democracy is still strong and we still have a lot going for us especially in the strength of our institutions and in the mobilisation that is possible among the population. I do think that these problems can be solved and people should take heart in that," Ms Repucci told The Guardian.

Mongolia has begun to treat asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients at their homes, a senior official of the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Thursday.

"Our country has recently begun to isolate and treat asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients at their own homes," Enebish Temuulen, deputy director of the NCCD, told a press conference.

Currently, 373 asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients are being treated at their homes in the country's capital Ulan Bator, which is the hardest hit region by COVID-19, Temuulen said.

These patients are being monitored by health workers of family practice under the supervision of the NCCD and the Ministry of Health, he added.

In recent days, more than 200 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases have been reported daily in Mongolia, mostly in Ulan Bator.

"If the situation continues to worsen, we will have no choice but to impose a strict lockdown in Ulan Bator next month," Deputy Prime Minister Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan said in a recent statement.

Mongolia has so far registered 5,895 COVID-19 cases, with nine deaths.

The country launched a national vaccination campaign late last month, with the aim of vaccinating at least 60 percent of its 3.3 million population. A total of 244,550 people have been vaccinated so far, according to the health ministry.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mongolia reached 5,895 with 285 new cases confirmed in the last 24 hours, the highest daily increase since the pandemic hit the country.

Mongolia has conducted PCR testing of 13,456 people nationwide yesterday, the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) Deputy Director E.Temuulen said.

267 of the cases were registered in Ulaanbaatar while 18 cases were confirmed in regions: in Zavkhan - 1, Bayankhongor - 1, Orkhon - 3, Darkhan-Uul - 7, Arkhangai - 2 and Tov - 2 cases.

A total of 4,044 patients recovered, with 97 in the past day.

1,391 patients are undergoing treatment: 21 patients in severe and 6 patients are in extremely serious condition.

Mongolia's National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring on Thursday issued a warning of strong winds and dust storms.

In the coming three days, strong winds and heavy dust storms are expected to sweep the western, central and Gobi parts of Mongolia.

In addition, heavy dust and snow storms are expected to hit eastern provinces of the country, with wind speed expected to reach 18-28 meters per second in large parts of the country in the coming few days, the agency said, urging citizens, especially nomadic herders, to take extra precautions against possible disasters.

The warning came after 10 people, mostly herders, lost their lives due to heavy dust and snow storms that swept through large parts of Mongolia in mid-March

Dangerously defective Chinese steel, incompetent engineering and poor procurement have been cited by multiple former workers on Rio Tinto’s troubled Mongolian copper project as contributing to cost and schedule blowouts that workers say were understood by Rio management months before investors were told.

The explosive testimony from 12 individuals who worked for Rio or its contractors on the $US6.75 billion Oyu Tolgoi project comes as Rio’s new copper boss Bold Baatar holds crucial talks with the Mongolian government over the future of Rio’s biggest and most important growth project.

A 158-page claim filed in a US court expands significantly upon the initial class action claim lodged in October, which was built upon evidence provided by former Oyu Tolgoi worker Richard Bowley and much of which had already been made public in The Australian Financial Review in November 2019.

While the initial claim accused Rio of being too slow to tell investors of the cost and schedule blowouts, the amended claim also accuses Rio of concealing the true cause of the delays, which Rio had largely blamed upon the realisation that geology at Oyu Tolgoi was weaker and less contiguous than first thought.

Oyu Tolgoi’s weak geology had been well known on the project since at least 2012, and the claim lists one former employee who worked at Oyu Tolgoi between 2013 and 2019 as saying it was “pure horseshit” to suggest the geology was the major cause of the blowouts.

“The project was being delayed because of engineering and execution. There may have been some pockets of bad ground, but that’s expected in any mine,” the former employee, anonymously described as a “top manager” at Rio’s shaft contractor Red Path, was quoted as saying in the amended claim.

A second Red Path project manager said the steel required for the main shaft at the underground mine was “consistently sub par, had structural defects and issues with fabrication, including steel parts not being made to specifications, had poor joints, and was otherwise unusable and dangerous”.

It was a disaster. It was a complete joke.

— Former employee at Oyu Tolgoi

Steel was crucial for safe delivery of Oyu Tolgoi’s main shaft, and the accounts were supported in the claim by Grant Brinkmann, who was Rio’s senior area manager of shafts at Oyu Tolgoi for the two years to May 2018.

Mr Brinkmann claims Rio executives, including global projects boss David Joyce, “knew things were delayed” by at least the end of 2017.

Rio did not give any indication of blowouts on the project until October 2018, and the multi-billion dollar nature of those blowouts was not fully disclosed until July 2019.

The timing of disclosures is crucial to the case, which seeks damages for investors who bought shares in Rio’s majority owned subsidiary Turquoise Hill in the belief the project was progressing well.

Mr Brinkmann was sacked by Rio in May 2018, with Mr Brinkmann and other former employees believing he was sacked for speaking up about the problems on the project.

“By the time I left, we had only been constructing [the Shaft 2 infrastructure] for six months, and we were already six months behind. We hadn’t advanced very far at all … It was a very poor start and just didn’t get any better,” he said.

The seventh former employee named in the claim, who worked on procurement for the project, was alarmed to be told that Rio was determined to prioritise the speed of the project, rather than the cost.

“It was a disaster. It was a complete joke,” he was quoted as saying.

Much of the procurement work on Oyu Tolgoi has been carried out by Rio’s Brisbane office, and that Australian involvement was one of the reasons the Australian government’s export credit agency was willing to lend $US150 million to the project in 2015.

The class action is part of a broader battle between the lead claimant Pentwater Capital Management and Rio, with Pentwater being the second biggest shareholder in Turquoise Hill and a vocal critic of Rio’s influence over company.

Aside from Rio and Turquoise Hill, former Rio chief Jean-Sebastien Jacques and Rio’s chief operating officer Arnaud Soirat are named as defendants.

Several executives of Turquoise Hill were also named as defendants, including recently departed chief executive Ulf Quellmann, who was effectively ousted because he pushed back against Rio on several topics, including Rio’s desire for Turquoise Hill to conduct a massive equity raising.

Rio is expected to push for the claim to be dismissed by the court before May 18.

″⁣Rio Tinto believes that the complaint is without merit,” said a Rio spokesman.

BY: Peter Ker covers resource companies, based in Melbourne. Connect with Peter on Twitter. Email Peter at pker@afr.com

This spring, many parts of northern China, including the capital Beijing, have been consistently invaded by sand and dust from Mongolia. The two neighboring countries have been sharing projects for controlling the sand in recent decades, but the dreadful sandstorms that have affected China have caused more calls for cooperation to deal with the problem.

A once-in-a-decade, massive sandstorm hit northern China on March 15, turning the air yellow and covering vehicles or anything in the open air with dust. The AQI index in Beijing surpassed 8,000, a record number, and the sandstorm is estimated to have killed at least 10 people in Mongolia.

After that, northern China was hit by several more sandstorms. On Wednesday, Beijing and nearby regions suffered another sandstorm, leading to medium or heavy air pollution, media reports said.

In response to the situation, some Chinese scientists have proposed solutions. Researchers from the Institute of Desertification Studies under the Chinese Academy of Forestry have appealed for more work in monitoring the desertification of the Mongolian Plateau using remote-sensing techniques. They have also provided descriptions of the potential harm based on their research, the Global Times has learned.

“This dust storm shows that there's much to be done in regional cooperation to improve the environment,” Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said on March 16. “We stand ready to join hands with neighboring countries and the international community to do a better job in improving and protecting the regional and global environment and to contribute to the building of a more beautiful and cleaner world.”

China and Mongolia share a border of more than 4,000 kilometers and Beijing is only 1,166 kilometers away from Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, which is also home to half of Mongolia’s population. The ecological systems of the two countries are closely connected.

China and Mongolia have always cooperated in managing sand and dust, but China could also aid Mongolia with experience and technology. Every year, funding from national departments and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is applied for this work, the Global Times learned from the Chinese Academy of Forestry.

Cao Xiaoming, a research fellow at the Institute of Desertification Studies under the Chinese Academy of Forestry, monitored the drought conditions in the Mongolian Plateau from 2011 to 2018 with remote-sensing techniques, together with scientists in Mongolia.

They found how climate change and human activities have led to dryer earth and desertification in the region, which covers both Mongolia and China’s Inner Mongolia.

According to Cao, the research is funded by the Chinese side. The results of the research are shared with Mongolian institutes.

From engagement with Mongolian scientists related to desertification, Cao found that they are also very concerned about the situation in Mongolia and that they cooperate and communicate with their Chinese colleagues.

As early as in 2002, China, Japan and South Korea, together with Mongolia launched joint research in the desert in southeastern Mongolia. In 2015, China, Russia and Mongolia signed an outline for building an economic corridor, in which enhancing ecological and environmental protection was underlined.

In 2011 and 2013, the former State Forestry Administration hosted training for sand control technologies and desertification prevention. For instance, in the 2013 training, 10 Mongolian experts and senior officials related to desertification prevention work visited China and had field trips in regions such as North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The Mongolian participants learned about China’s successful cases in tackling desertification, from building haloxylon ammodendron forests, restoring vegetation and developing a carbon market, according to a statement sent from the Chinese Academy of Forestry.

However, sometimes the knowledge cannot be transferred into practical actions in Mongolia, said an employee at the forestry administration of Inner Mongolia, which participated in organizing the training.

Moreover, the current international cooperation is just a drop in the bucket in terms of changing the situation. Data shows that 76.8 percent of the earth in Mongolia suffered desertification in 2018, local media reports said.

“Smog and sandstorms usually hang over the sky of Ulan Bator in winter from September to March, which is annoying,” Yang Yupei, a construction project manager from a Chinese engineering company told the Global Times. “I think the Mongolian government should attach more importance to environmental protection,” Yang said.

At the scheduled meeting held on March 24, 2021, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Mongolia took into consideration the current state and outlook of the economy and financial markets, as well as the uncertainties and risks inherent in the domestic and external environments, and decided to:

Keep the policy rate unchanged at 6 percent;

Issue up to MNT 350.0 billion under the long-term repo financing in the second quarter of 2021. The financing has been expanded to involve businesses in processing, service sectors, and trade businesses with more than 200 employees.

Annual headline inflation stands at 2.6 percent nationwide and 2.0 percent in Ulaanbaatar city as of February 2021. The impact of the demand factor on inflation is seen to have a gradual increase in the coming quarters as the economic activity intensifies, while supply-side inflation is expected to increase further owing to the prices of fuels and refined coal. Inflation is projected to remain unchanged at the target level in the medium-term, but it may change due to the spread of coronavirus and vaccination activity.

If vaccination continues successfully, economic activity is expected to increase, with businesses returning to normalcy. In the first two months of 2021, the export grew by 73 percent. The processing sector showed an increase of 66 percent and 37 percent in January and February respectively. In addition, Moody's changed the outlook of Mongolia's issuer ratings to stable from negative in connection with increased official foreign currency reserves and reduced pressures of short-term external debt as well as expected recovery of the economy.

The step-by-step implementation of monetary and macroprudential policy measures and the adoption of new financing instruments by the central bank directed at mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to decelerating the pace of domestic economic downturns, facilitating recovery, and ensuring the stability of the banking sector.

If inflation exceeds the target level, the MPC will make policy adjustments.

Mongolia's third Trade Policy Review has provided us a good opportunity to examine its economic, trade, and investment developments since the previous Review, as well as to learn about the unique challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted trade and the global economy. I would like to thank the Mongolian delegation, headed by H.E. Ms. Battsetseg Batmunkh, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for her remarks and participation from capital. My appreciation also goes to our discussant, H.E. Ambassador Dr. Rashidi Said of Malaysia for his thoughtful comments and remarks and of course to the 23 delegations that took the floor during these two days and those that participated through the advance question and answer process.

Members commended Mongolia on its overall open trade and investment regime, including its policy orientation toward more inclusive trade. Its economic performance over the review period had been impressive as there was generally continued economic growth until early 2020. The impact of COVID-19 has severely affected the Mongolian economy, albeit with Government intervention, mainly in the form of stimulus packages, it was hoped that the economy would recover quickly and accelerate. Despite these positive trends, Mongolia's economy remained heavily reliant on a few sectors and its trade was concentrated in terms of products and markets, thus Members felt that there was a strong need to diversify. This issue was recognized by the Government as one of its top national policy priorities, as addressed in Mongolia's Economic Recovery Program and the Mongolian Export Program, among others. Merchandise exports and imports reached a record high of USD 13.7 billion in 2019 and the trade balance remained positive for many years, but several Members noted that Mongolia had yet to reach its trade potential.

Mongolia was a key trade partner particularly to its regional neighbors and its move to deepen regional economic and trade integration was welcomed. It was noted that Mongolia had concluded its first FTA with Japan and had recently implemented the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA). Furthermore, it was examining possibilities for future free trade agreements. Mongolia benefitted from a number of GSP programs from other Members that could help in diversifying its exports.

Many Members applauded Mongolia's contributions to the Multilateral Trading System including through its coordinating role of the Asian Group of Developing Countries and its contribution the group of Landlocked Developing Countries. Mongolia's ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement, its support of the Buenos Aires Declaration on Women's Economic Empowerment, and its participation in various Joint Statement Initiatives were viewed as particularly welcome developments during the period. Several Members inquired about the status of the initiative for joining the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement and encouraged Mongolia to become a party to the Agreement in the near future. It was also suggested that Mongolia engage further in multilateral and plurilateral trade negotiations in order to reap greater benefits from the Multilateral Trading System.

Foreign investment had featured prominently in many interventions and in the advance written questions. Several Members noted they were a significant source of foreign direct investment in Mongolia and welcomed the initiatives of the One-Stop Service Center and the Investors Protection Council. Although investment policies and practices had generally promoted and protected foreign investors, some Members noted that there was still room for improvement. Frequent amendments of investment laws and regulations were seen as unpredictable and created an unstable environment. In the view of some Members, there was a need to enhance regulatory certainty, reduce investment risk, improve transparency and the business environment, and create a level playing field for foreign investors.

Mongolia's positive developments in the area of trade facilitation were recognized as it had undertaken significant efforts to improve trade facilitation and modernize its customs procedures. This was particularly important given Mongolia's geographical location as a landlocked country and as an important transit corridor along the old Silk Road. The adoption of the National Trade Facilitation Roadmap, the establishment of the National Trade Facilitation Committee, the development of the single window application, and creation of electronic data exchange were all important steps taken to make improvements in this area. Nevertheless, some Members noted that they still faced difficulties with Mongolia's customs clearance and inspection procedures.

In their interventions, Members referred to remaining challenges in a number of areas. Mongolia's SPS regime was characterized as lacking alignment with international SPS standards and Mongolia was encouraged to make improvements in this area. Import quotas on certain agricultural products were seen as problematic on several fronts, including what some Members saw as possible inconsistency with WTO obligations. The regulatory framework and new laws proposed on alcoholic beverages were also of concern; and at least one Member referred to disruption to trade flows over mandatory enrichment standards for wheat flour.

The importance of strengthening good governance, improving transparency and the legal environment were also recurrent themes during our discussions. Transparency was identified by several Members as needing improvement on a number of fronts, including in the areas of government procurement, investment laws and regulations, regulatory and legislative processes, and permits and licensing processes for imported goods. Securing an independent judiciary and upholding the rule of law were identified as key elements in enhancing governance.

While Mongolia had made notifications in a number of areas during the review period, several were noted as lacking and Mongolia was encouraged to make further efforts to remedy the situation. Notifications on agriculture, customs valuation, quantitative restrictions, subsidies, and import licensing were consistently noted as being outstanding. Members highlighted that it was important for Mongolia to improve transparency in its trade policies and practices through notifications in the future.

These were the main areas of discussion at this Review that has allowed us to gain a better understanding of Mongolia's trade, investment, and related policies. Mongolia received over 300 advance written questions and it was commended for having replied to all of them prior to this meeting. In a month's time, Mongolia is expected to reply to any late submissions and follow-up questions at which time the third Trade Policy Review of Mongolia will successfully conclude.

A consortium led by Japanese engineering company JGC Holdings has been awarded the contract to build Mongolia's first utility-scale solar-plus-storage power plant by the country's energy ministry, pv magazine reported on March 22.

The 5 MW/3.6 MWh power plant will reportedly be built in partnership with Mongolian EPC contractor MCS International LLC and Japanese ceramics company and network attached storage (NAS) provider NGK Insulators Ltd, which will provide its large-scale sodium-sulfur-based battery systems for the project. “NGK's NAS batteries are capable of storing electricity even in extremely cold and extremely hot environments and were suitable for the weather conditions in Mongolia,” Yuki Ichihara, of JGC Holdings' Group Development Management Department, told the journal.

“NGK believes that the order for this project was won as a result of strong evaluations of NAS batteries’ ability to offer a large capacity and long discharge time, along with NGK’s extensive delivery and long-term operational track records,” the Japanese battery provider said in a separate statement.

The plant will be located in Uliastai, in Mongolia's Zavkhan Province, and will come online in the spring of 2022, the company said.

The project is being financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), which was established by the Japanese Ministry of Environment at the ADB itself.

The tender for the project was launched by the Mongolian authorities in February. It is part of the Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector Project, which aims to deploy 40.5 MW of solar and wind capacity in the country’s western and Altai-Uliastai regions.

Mongolia’s installed PV capacity stood at just 89 MW at the end of 2019, according to statistics published by the International Renewable Energy Agency. In 2017, Mongolia had to import around 20% of its required electricity.