Just before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing on February 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first foreign leader to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping face-to-face in two years (Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene met with Xi two days later).

Xi and Putin subsequently issued a joint statement through the Kremlin's press office. In the statement, China openly supported Russian opposition to the further enlargement of NATO and Moscow's other security demands in Europe, representing a new level of unity between the two countries.

At the same time, Russian gas giant Gazprom signed a 30-year contract with the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to supply gas to China through a new pipeline from the island of Sakhalin.

Once operational, the new line will increase Russian gas supply to China by 10 billion cubic metres per year (bcm/yr), to a total forecast of 48 bcm/yr. The total includes 38 bcm/yr supplied through the Power of Siberia line. According to Reuters, the sales of gas could generate $37.5 billion over 25 years.

“This is already a second contract to be signed for Russian gas supplies to China, and it is indicative of the exceptionally strong mutual trust and partnership between our countries and companies. Our Chinese partners from CNPC have already seen for themselves that Gazprom is a reliable gas supplier,” Gazprom chief Alexey Miller said in a statement.

In the same statement, Gazprom also noted the completion of the feasibility study for the Soyuz Vostok gas trunkline across Mongolia, an extension of the Power of Siberia 2 line that Gazprom says will 'make it possible to supply up to 50 bcm/yr of gas to China' – in effect doubling current exports.

The study, which relied on on-site surveys, mapping and route analysis conducted by Mongolian companies, outlines a plan for the pipeline to stretch 962.9 kilometres across Mongolia, including five compressor stations.

Russia's eastern pipelines, including the Power of Siberia, are not connected to Russia's pipeline distribution network to Europe – though a connection is possible, which would place CNPC in direct competition with European buyers for Russian gas, a situation which some believe has made Russian gas less attractive to the Chinese.

However, when seen in the context of Putin's meeting with Xi and increasing Chinese support for Russian foreign policy, this latest deal indicates that Beijing may have more tolerance for increasing its dependence on Russian energy. Russia currently supplies about five per cent of Chinese gas demand through both pipeline and LNG exports and is China's second-biggest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia.

If so, this could be good news for the Power of Siberia 2 trunkline across Mongolia, which would create a new source of income for the Mongolian government.

Yet Chinese investments in energy imports seem to occur irrespective of wider geopolitical tensions. In December, American company Venture Global announced that it had signed a 20-year deal with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the first of its kind.

Beneath all this lies China's relentless demand for gas: the country became the world's largest buyer of LNG in 2021. The growing market has seen companies such as Elixir Energy exploring potential natural gas deposits under Mongolia's Gobi desert for export to China.

Yet hard questions remain for Mongolia to answer. How much dependence on Russian energy is Beijing willing to tolerate, and is there an opportunity for Mongolian gas development?

And looking beyond energy: is Mongolia in the middle of increasing geopolitical alignment between Beijing and Moscow?

The first cooperative in Mongolia was established 100 years ago, on 02 November 1921, by the decree of the Bogd Khan under the name “People’s Mutual Aid Cooperative” with 116 members. Shortly after the victory of the People's Revolution, the leaders of that time initiated and found this cooperative as there was a need and the newly formed government also supported the cooperatives. This movement, united by wealth, labor, and desire made a significant contribution to the employment of many people and increased social labor productivity at that time.

Today, a total of 4,468 cooperatives with 234,633 members, incorporating MNT 49.6 billion, are making a significant contribution to the socio-economic development in Mongolia.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the cooperative movement, the Mongolian National Cooperative Alliance (MNCA) and the National Association of Mongolian Agricultural Cooperatives (NAMAC), organized many events with the Ministry of Agriculture and Light Industry to promote the cooperatives’ contribution to the country’s development. One of the key highlights of this celebration was the adoption of the newly revised law on cooperatives by the Parliament of Mongolia. The significant changes in the law will strengthen the governance of the cooperatives, protect the property of the cooperatives, and clarify the state's participation in the development of the cooperatives. The cooperators believe that the adoption of this law will help to improve the legal environment for further development of the Mongolian cooperative movement.

The Prime Minister of Mongolia, L.Oyun-Erdene, in the 7th National Forum of Cooperatives, organized as part of the 100th-anniversary celebrations, congratulated the cooperatives and appreciated their role in the country's development. He announced that the Government of Mongolia has decided to launch the “New Cooperatives” Campaign in 2022 to enrich a new model for modern development.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 11, 2022 /CNW/ - Kincora Copper Limited (the Company, Kincora) (TSXV: KCC) (ASX: KCC) is pleased to provide an exploration and corporate update following 2021 field season activities in Mongolia and an extension of the corporate agreement with Resilience Mining Mongolia Limited (Resilience) covering the Mongolian asset portfolio.

Sam Spring, President & CEO, commented:

"Kincora has continued to responsibly and systematically advance and add value to our prospective project pipeline in Mongolia's Southern Gobi, with promising results, as we work with and pursue the corporate agreement with Resilience. The agreement with Resilience provides attractive upside to Kincora shareholders and will streamline focus to our Macquarie Arc porphyry portfolio in Australia.

Last year's field activities have identified a new significant scale series of porphyry targets at Shuteen North, and separately advanced our understanding of the mineralised controls and size of the system at the more advanced West Fox target. These results further highlight the potential of our existing Mongolian project portfolio and logic of having a motivated and focused group like Resilience drive these assets forward to the next stage.

The Company has granted Resilience an extension to IPO on the ASX with a A$7.5 million to A$10 million offering, a new lead manager, reimbursement of certain Mongolian expenditures, and the definition of a maiden resource for the Bronze Fox project1.

The targets, team and foundations are in place for Resilience to add significant value this field season."

An accompanying detailed Mongolia focused exploration and corporate update presentation, with further details and figures to this release, is available at www.kincoracopper.com

Figure 1: A strategic and district scale position in Mongolia's world-class Southern Gobi porphyry belt

On China's doorstep, trucking distance to the world's largest copper consumer

Figure 2: Field season results generate and refine multiple targets

Three large and underexplored porphyry complexes on two adjacent Kincora licenses, which are covered by the corporate agreement with Resilience. Resilience is undertaking a maiden JORC &/or 43-101 resource for the Bronze Fox project at the existing Block Modelled area that supports the defined Exploration Target 1

Resilience agreement update

On June 30th, 2021, Kincora executed a definitive acquisition and joint-venture agreement with Resilience for Kincora's Mongolian asset portfolio.

This agreement was extended with completion proposed January 31st, 2022, with a further extension now being provided subject to:

Resilience having appointed a new lead manager for the proposed ASX listing (by 28 February, 2022);

Refunding Kincora a minimum of 50% of its Mongolian Maintenance Payments upon receipt of further pre-IPO funding;

Converting (at Resilience's expense) the Exploration Target to a JORC and/or NI 43-101 resource for the Bronze Fox project ahead of IPO 1,2 ; and,

Resilience raising A$7.5 million to A$10 million in new equity alongside IPO on the ASX (by 30 April 2022).

1 Resilience to convert (at Resilience's expense) the existing exploration target2 for Bronze Fox to a JORC &/or NI 43-101 resource prior to IPO on the ASX.

2 "76 holes for 24,129m supports an exploration target of 416-428Mt at 0.26-0.30% Cu for up to 2,437 Mlb copper & 0.84 Moz gold or 1.3-1.5Mt CuEq.

This estimate of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature and there is currently insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource. Since, some 24,000 m of drill core at the Bronze Fox Intrusive Complex has been reviewed and relogged by Kincora, adding to 8,000 m previously relogged.

This exercise addressed an issue with geological data quality that prevented reporting of a Mineral Resource in accordance with JORC and NI43-101 guidelines. A conceptual study undertaken at the same time as the Exploration Target explored the potential for a small, near surface oxide SX-EW project at Bronze Fox."

Sourced from the Mining Associates Technical Export Report Feb 25, 2021. Please refer to this report for further details.

This announcement has been authorised for release by the Board of Kincora Copper Limited (ARBN 645 457 763)

The new constitution of Mongolia was adopted on January 13, 1992. It stated that respecting and upholding human rights, freedom, and justice are crucial in Mongolia.

Mongolia has transformed into a vibrant democracy since 1990. Over the past 30 years, a free market economic system has become well established and thousands of commercials have been produced to attract and retain consumers. Advertisement law of Mongolia was passed in 2002. In the statement of law Article 7 – “Illegal advertisement”, the following advertisements shall be considered as an illegal advertisement: “7.4.5. Used the phrase, comparison or description that assaulted nationality, language, race, social origin, social status, age, sex, profession, education, religion or opinions.”

In the current research database and library of Mongolian Universities written in the Mongolian language, there is no empirical study regarding how consumers comprehend content, visual expression, phases of commercials that abused human rights, including discrimination. Article 14.2 in the new constitution of Mongolian affirmed that “No person shall be discriminated against based on ethnic origin, language, race, age, sex, religion, opinion, and education.

Therefore, in this study the following two objectives were set:

How an advertisement audience receives the content and description that discriminated against human beings.

Evaluate Mongolian students’ knowledge and sense of discrimination.

We undertook random sampling with University students. Participants were exposed to three advertisements.

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Figure 1

The first print advertisement was about racial discrimination. Several famous media companies published articles which considered this Dove print advertisement as racial discrimination. This advertisement for using Dove body wash was criticised for implying that ‘dirty’ black women could be ‘cleaned’ into a white woman.

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Figure 2

The second one was about body shape differences. The real beauty campaign rolls out seven different shapes of Dove-branded plastic body-wash bottles. Advertisement agents imply the idea that different shapes of bottles could represent different body shapes of women. But for some, this symbolic expression is offensive and they cannot aesthetically represent the beauty of a woman.

Figure 3

The third imagery of print advertisement was about discrimination on religion and culture. In different religions and cultures, people are sensitive to religious and cultural expressions. Specifically, Saudi Arabia Muslims regard the modifications of religious and cultural symbols as a form of disrespect and prejudice. The majority of Arabians viewed Starbucks’ new logo as racist and discriminatory based on religious differences. The reason is not all Arabians are strictly ruled by religious dress codes. Moreover, when a company thinks about Arabian women, they annotated (compared) Arabian women in Burqa as a kind of negative stereotyping.

Mongolians have a long history and unique culture. Therefore, most Mongolian people perceive discrimination on human body shape, mimicking on religious or cultural difference and racy expression as offensive and hurting someone’s feeling. As a result, the three advertisements mentioned above were chosen for this study.

The purpose was to determine whether the participants perceive the above advertisements as discriminatory or not. A total of 316 questionnaires were collected. Focus group discussions were then conducted to examine the further issues obtained from the results of quantitative analysis.

Seven questions were about general demographic questions, the remaining nine questions were about the correspondent’s knowledge of human rights abuse and discrimination. Some examples of the questions were: In which grade you are studying? household income, gender, residential location, etc were asked. Following up general demographic questions, questions designed to clarify explicit and implicit knowledge of participant’s human rights abuse. For example: do you think this print advertisement implies racial discrimination? Do you think this print advertisement discriminates against people based on their body shape? Do you think this print advertisement discriminates against people based on their religious and cultural differences? 85 (26.9%) were collected from fresher students, 69 (21.8%) were collected from sophomore students, 32 (10.1%) were collected from junior students, 45 (14.2%) were collected from senior students, and 85 (26.9%) were collected from graduate students. Of the total sample, 69.9% were female and 30.1% were male. In terms of household income, most of them 35.4 percent were 300-600$. 261 (82.6%) were collected from Ulaanbaatar city, 55 (17.4%) were collected from rural areas. According to the survey, 95.3 percent of the respondents use social media channels.

In cumulative percentage, 54% of the respondents recognised the discrimination.

The results of the current study show that students are aware of discrimination in advertisements, regardless of gender, location, type of residence, marital status, or source of information. However, our finding was that there are differences in perceptions and knowledge of human rights abuses depending on income level (55% recognised discrimination) and education level (60% recognised discrimination).

The evidence of our empirical study appears to show that critical reading of advertisements were varied depending on income level. In particular, the results of our quantitative research have proven that low-income participants (73% of total respondents) have a low level of awareness, sensitivity, and knowledge about human rights abuse.

Surprisingly, perhaps, graduate students were less able to recognise discrimination. They were less critical of Figure 1 and 3 than of Figure 2. This may be down to the nature of the discrimination or to other factors. We aim to study this further. Our study has revealed a level of uncritical reading of advertisements amongst the students we surveyed. We propose first that Mongolian businesses be educated on human rights in commercial contexts, including discriminatory advertisements and second, that younger people as they become consumers must be educated in engaging with advertisements critically and ethically.

Please see the original article on the link https://www.cambridge.org/.../critical-reading-of.../

BY: Enkhbold Chuluunbaatar is a multidisciplinary PhD who is interested in marketing and management, service design, industry investigation, entrepreneurship, strategic management. He received his PhD degree from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and specialized in creative industries investigation. Currently, he is working as a senior lecturer at the National University of Mongolia.

Urandelger Gantulga received her Master and Ph.D degree from Chonbuk National University, in South Korea in 2013 and 2017 respectively. She is currently working as a senior lecturer at the National University of Mongolia. Her main areas of research interests are service marketing, business to business marketing, consumer behavior and e-commerce.

Erdenedalai Batulzii received her political science Master and Ph.D degree in National University of Mongolia, in 2010 and 2015. Currently, she is working as a senior lecturer at the National University of Mongolia. Her main research interests are democracy, political party, election, voter’s behavior, human right and political research methods.

According to the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, Mongolia's exports of mineral products have increased in the last two weeks compared to the previous weeks.

As of February 4-10, the country exported a total of 806.7 thousand tons of coal (1224 containers by road, 654 containers by rail), 124.5 thousand tons of copper concentrate (152 containers by road, 329 containers by rail) as well as 165.2 thousand tons of iron ore and concentrate (1086 containers by rail) from the beginning of the year.

The purchase of gold by the central bank was 1,663.0 kg from the beginning of the year, which shows an increase of 4.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

Ivanhoe Mines has signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company Gecamines to bring the Kipushi zinc mine back into commercial production, the Canada-listed miner said on Monday.

Kipushi will have an average grade of 36.4% zinc over the first five years of production, Ivanhoe said.

The deal, signed by Ivanhoe’s fully-owned subsidiary Kipushi Holding, sets out commercial terms towards a new joint-venture agreement, and is subject to execution of definitive documentation, Ivanhoe said.

(By Helen Reid; Editing by Jason Neely)

In connection with the Government’s decision to fully open the country’s borders to international travel and lift pandemic restrictions, a conference took place under the theme, ‘New Revival Policy - Tourism’, on February 14. The conference was organized at the initiative of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

In aims of effectively implementing the ‘Vision-2050’ long-term development policy and boosting the productivity of government organizations, the Government recently approved the ‘New Revival Policy’, its program for implementation in phases, and large-scale development projects that are planned to be carried out in its framework.

During the conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs B.Battsetseg highlighted that the tourism sector has a crucial role in accelerating the country’s economy, and noted that the Ministry is focusing on smoother entry of foreign nationals traveling to Mongolia, and providing support for tourism by carrying out certain works.

Based on the effective practices of countries around the world, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively working to facilitate the travel conditions of foreign nationals, and further refining the legal environment for tourism and investment. Currently, visa exemption arrangements have been made for ordinary passport holders of 25 nationalities and diplomatic and official passport holders of 63 nationals.

Through the evisa.mn system, foreign nationals of 36 countries are also being issued three types of short-term visas in 20-72 hours.

Following the agreement that was reached on the issue of developing tourism in the Mongolia-China border region, the K3 visa has been introduced which is a three-day visa.

In the framework of Mongolia’s foreign policy, ‘Vision-2050’ long-term development policy, and the Government’s action plan for 2020-2024, a comprehensive program is currently being implemented on expanding cultural relations with other countries by accelerating promotional works abroad.

Through the 46 Diplomatic Representatives’ Offices around the world, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also consistently promotes the laws of Mongolia as well as the policies, decisions, and works being carried out by the Government. Within the aims of increasing the country’s competitiveness for tourism internationally, and developing sustainable tourism, support is being provided for developing cooperation in economy and tourism with other countries alongside promoting the Government’s policy on tourism development.

Furthermore, preparations have been recently completed for projects and programs aimed at boosting the country’s tourism sector with the involvement of Mongolian citizens abroad, and utilizing new opportunities in increasing the flow of foreign and domestic tourists in the country.

As for the issue concerning vaccinations, the mutual acknowledgement of ‘Health Certificate for International Travel’ or vaccine certificates have been reached with the countries of Kazakhstan, Hungary, Turkey, Japan, India, and the U.K, while talks are underway with countries such as Canada, UAE, South Korea, China, Russia, and the EU.

During the conference, the participants highlighted the importance of specifically defining the pressing issues for developing tourism in Mongolia and resolving them, increasing the sector’s competitiveness internationally, ensuring the correlation between the policy and works of corresponding organizations in order to improve the current conditions for tourism based on public-private-people partnership, and organizing promotional works abroad comprehensively by handling the matter through a ‘single window’.

On February 15, 609 new cases of COVID-19 have been detected after conducting PCR tests nationwide within the past 24 hours, reported the Ministry of Health. More specifically, 286 new cases were detected in the capital city, with 323 cases in rural regions.

Furthermore, two new COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, raising the country’s death toll to 2,076. Currently, 6,520 people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19, while 21,783 people with mild symptoms of COVID-19 are being isolated at home.

Of the total patients currently undergoing treatment at hospitals, there are 570 patients in critical, and 54 patients in very critical condition.

As much of the nation watched pre-game Super Bowl hype, five soldiers with the Illinois Army National Guard were launched Sunday on a super showdown of their own. But this team’s big game won’t be held in sunny California, but the ancient Asian land of Mongolia.

A logistics advisor team of five soldiers from the Illinois Army National Guard’s elite 6th Battalion, 54th Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) held a deployment ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 13, at the Rock Island Arsenal. After a short training in Texas, the team will join the active-duty Army’s 5th SFAB based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., to deploy to Mongolia. The six-month deployment is the first for the Illinois National Guard’s SFAB unit and represents the first SFAB to support the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, according to a Monday release.

The SFAB is an elite unit with a core mission to conduct training, advising, assisting, enabling and accompanying operations with allied and partner nations. The Illinois Army National Guard’s SFAB unit was activated in 2020, after about a year and a half of organizing the unit. The 6th Battalion, based at Rock Island Arsenal, represents the logistics experts in the 54th SFAB. The 54th SFAB headquarters is in Indiana.

“We just feel a tremendous amount of pride sending this team off,” said Maj. Keri Wolf, the officer-in-charge of 6th Battalion and one of the original full-time Active Guard-Reserve (AGR) officers charged with manning, equipping and training the new unit. “To see this all come to fruition is just a great feeling.”

Lt. Col. Bradley Roach, the 6th Battalion Commander, said he was “jealous” of the deploying team. “Although you are few in numbers, the positive effect you can have on the future relations between the United States and Mongolia is great.” Roach said the SFAB doesn’t just advise foreign defense forces, it also builds lasting relationships and trust between nations. Mongolia is an independent Asian nation sandwiched between China and Russia.

The logistics advisory team, designated Team 6621, consists of an officer-in-charge, a noncommissioned officer-in-charge/transportation expert, a supply/quartermaster expert, a maintenance expert, and a medical expert. “While they are all experts in their own field, they are also cross-trained in the other areas so they can effectively advise in any of the areas of Army logistics,” Wolf said.

Col. Tim Newman, the Commander of the 108th Sustainment Brigade, the 6th Battalion’s higher headquarters in Illinois, told the families of the deploying Guard members to please reach out if they needed support. “We are here for you,” Newman said.

Capt. Cameron Worley, a native of Peoria and officer-in-charge of the team, said he was excited for the deployment and promised to take good care of the soldiers while they are in Mongolia. In six months the team is slated to be replaced in Mongolia with another team from 6th Battalion.

“I’m honored to lead this first team and to go do what this unit is designed to do,” he said.