Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Since Mongolia’s announcement of strict-lockdown regime in response to the current situation of COVID-19, the Ulaanbaatar Railway JSC has been providing prompt international transport of food and emergency goods for uninterrupted import to Mongolia and building up reserves as instructed by the Ministry of Road and Transport Development and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.

Within the framework of foreign cooperation, a request was put forth to the neighboring railways companies to provide trains and transport food freights of Mongolia till the border checkpoint and hand it over to the Ulaanbaatar Railway. Although the Russian and Chinese railways are congested, the countries are transporting urgent goods, for example from Russia wheat and consumer goods, and from China rice, sugar, and fuel binders, to the border checkpoints.

In addition, the number of vehicles passing through the Zamiin-Uud-Erlian road border checkpoint has been drastically reduced, and due to the accumulation of freights in Erlian, there is a possibility of shortage in some products, according to relevant organizations and companies. To this end, preliminary agreement has been reached with the Chinese Railway to transfer freights to the Ulaanbaatar Railway trains at the Erlian railway station. According to international railway agreements, rules, and regulations, Erlian handles only narrow-gauge Chinese trains, and there are other technical issues for loading freight to Ulaanbaatar Railway’s trains. However, the issues have been resolved thanks to the urgent talks held with Chinese Railway and preparations are underway.

It is the priority to ensure continuous international rail transport, which is important for the country's social, economic security, foreign trade and export earnings amid the pandemic. In this regard, it is necessary to cooperate with neighboring railways in order to eliminate the risk of the disease transmission through railway freights and technical agents who visit each other's border stations, which is an integral part of the technology of transferring and receiving trains from neighboring railway stations. Temporary technological procedures for the transfer of trains without agents, through electronic networks and other means have been developed and are being implemented at the Sukhbaatar and Zamyn-Uud border stations. As a result, the agents of the two countries are exchanging trains without crossing their respective borders.

Rio Tinto may face calls to pay compensation or a fine when an Australian parliamentary inquiry releases an interim report on Wednesday into how the firm legally destroyed ancient sacred rock shelters for an iron ore mine, industry sources said.

The inquiry into the destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelter in May has heard testimony from dozens of people and more than 140 submissions from miners, heritage specialists and Aboriginal and civil society groups.

The committee is due to table its report to the Senate on Wednesday afternoon, after covid-19 disruptions delayed hearings, and is now more likely to finish in the second half of 2021 once it has heard testimony from other states, an official told Reuters.

It is widely expected to castigate Rio on its failures as well as propose mining industry and legal reform. Its findings may also include a call for compensation.

“I think the only risk is that Rio has to pay some form of restitution,” said analyst Glyn Lawcock of UBS in Sydney.

Even then, in the context of Rio Tinto’s $123 billion valuation, the amount was not likely to be material; however recommendations to overhaul legislation could result in delays to industry mine expansion plans in the years ahead, he said.

“That could slow the process down and that will have an impact on global supply and demand at the end of the day,” he said. Western Australia supplies 55% of China’s iron ore needs.

Rio is also expected to announce its new chief executive any day, after Jean-Sébastien Jacques and two other senior leaders agreed to step down in August due to the procedural failings it found led to the disaster and the way it was initially managed.

Front runners for the new job include Shell Australia chairman Zoe Yujnovich, who once ran Rio’s Canadian iron ore business, former BP Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary, Anglo American finance director Stephen Pearce, OZ Minerals CEO Andrew Cole, and former Fortescue Metals Group CEO Nev Power.

(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Kim Coghill)

This excerpt is adapted from the book Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East (Penguin Random House Southeast Asia, 2020) by Aubrey Menard with the author’s permission.

The book introduces readers to modern Mongolia through the stories of young leaders fighting to make their country a better, more democratic place.

Much like its cashmere and wool, coal is a resource that Mongolia exports raw without adding value. Frustratingly, not refining its own goods costs Mongolia even more than potential jobs and economic growth—Mongolia is often forced to buy back the refined products of the resource that it sold.

This is the case in Mongolia’s energy sector, where instead of building the power generation infrastructure necessary to turn its own raw coal into sufficient electricity to meet its own needs, Mongolia buys a significant portion of its electricity from its neighbours, Russia and China.

Orchlon Enkhtsetseg (CEO of Clean Energy Asia), who in 2016 made a switch from working in Mongolia’s mining sector to working in its energy sector, says that Mongolia’s reliance on its neighbours for power is a threat to its security and sovereignty. “It’s very hard to call yourself a fully independent country when you have two of your neighbours saying, “If you don’t behave, we’ll turn off the switch,” he says.

Throughout the day, Mongolia is able to meet its own energy demand, but when its citizens return home in the evening, they require additional electricity to illuminate their homes, watch their televisions, and use their appliances. After 6.00 p.m., Mongolia buys extra energy from Russia, using imported electricity to fill up to 13 percent of its needs annually.

Powering the mega mine

Powering the Oyu Tolgoi mining operation has been a major issue of contention between Rio Tinto and the Mongolian government. According to their agreement, the mega Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine must operate using a domestic power source by 2022. Building a power station large enough to power the mine will cost an estimated $1.5 billion.

In 2019, the two parties, who were long at odds about where the power station should be located and who should pay for it, finally settled on building a coal-powered plant at the nearby Tavan Tolgoi coal mine. By the agreement reached in June 2020 the government plans to begin construction in 2021.

But today 100 per cent of the mine’s electricity needs are met by China. This comes at a price of approximately $100 million annually.

Energy subsidies are killing infrastructure

Orchlon is frustrated by the government ignoring energy infrastructure needs until they reach a crisis point. ‘It’s the same situation for heating in UB, actually,’ he says, explaining the city’s urgent infrastructure needs in coming years.

According to Orchlon, ‘The energy sector is so behind because we don’t consider electricity to be a product. We think it’s a social benefit that we’re entitled to and that it’s the government’s duty to provide.’

At a mere $0.04 per kilowatt hour, Mongolia’s electricity costs are some of the lowest in the world because it is heavily subsidized across the supply chain.

As a point of comparison, Orchlon points out that the average Mongolian household pays only $7.50 to $9.50 for their monthly electricity bill but will pay $15 for a bottle of vodka. He says that if you visit the APU spirit company, which produces the award-winning Chinggis Khan brand of vodka, their facility is state-of-the- art because they are able to take their profits and reinvest them into their business. In comparison, Mongolia’s energy infrastructure is crumbling. The power plants and transmission lines are outdated and insufficient to handle the country’s energy needs.

Mongolia has untapped energy potential...

‘We do have a lot of coal, but we do have a lot more wind and solar,’ says Orchlon. For Orchlon, using Mongolia’s renewable energy sources isn’t just an abstract thought. As the CEO of Clean Energy Asia, Orchlon is working towards securing Mongolia’s place in a new energy future.

While otherwise problematic, Mongolia’s dry climate means that the sun is nearly always shining in the land of eternal blue sky. Those rays can be collected by solar panels and converted to electricity. The frequent desert winds that cause pesky dust storms can be captured by wind turbines and used for power. ‘In terms of potential, we actually have enough wind and solar resources to power the whole of Asia,’ says Orchlon.

… that could power all of Asia

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and his colleagues are working towards the Asia Super Grid concept involving building a cross-border power grid system connecting China, South Korea, Mongolia, Russia, and Japan. Its estimated cost is $6.2 billion.

In its final phase, the grid will reach as far as southeast Asia and India. Mongolia is at the heart of their plan—giant wind farms will feed renewable energy into the grid, generating export earnings for the country. Orchlon’s role in the project is to make sure that the renewable energy infrastructure in Mongolia gets built.

In 2017, after $128 million in investment, Clean Energy Asia opened the Tetsii windfarm, a 50-megawatt operation in the Gobi Desert. The project broke records for being the fastest-built farm of its size while also coming in under budget.

Orchlon credits the combination of Mongolian and Japanese strengths to the project’s success—‘Mongolians are very “roll up our sleeves, get it done,”’ he says. ‘And the Japanese are very focused on planning.’ While the Tetsii wind farm currently only supplies Mongolia, investors see its success as an indication that the Asia Super Grid project is truly feasible.

Building the wind farm meant getting permission from local herders, who have become more cautious about large projects being built on their land after seeing the destruction wrought by mining development.

A rumour had spread among herders that the turbines would blow away the clouds, making it rain less and drying out their lands. They also worried that the area would be fenced off, preventing them from grazing their animals.

To secure the buy-in of herders, Orchlon went on what he describes as a campaign: he donned his finest deel and went ger to ger addressing misconceptions and concerns.

He explained that the lowest clouds form at 3,000 metres and that wind turbines are 90 metres tall; wind turbines don’t generate wind bursts like fans do, but rather use the energy, like pinwheels. Area residents are now happy about the role their region plays in supplying clean energy and Orchlon describes getting the enthusiastic support of the community as his proudest accomplishment.

The future is clean

Currently, about 6 percent of Mongolia’s energy needs are met by renewable sources and the fragility of Mongolia’s grid will make it difficult to add much more intermittent renewable energy. Because solar and wind energy vary depending on the weather and time of day, they are a less stable energy source than traditional power generation methods. They cannot be turned on and off, meaning that they cannot adjust to meet the needs of the power grid.

The solution is for solar and wind farms to add storage capacity so that power can be banked and added to the grid more smoothly, with batteries being used to absorb fluctuations. Unfortunately, storage technology is still prohibitively expensive, but Orchlon is optimistic that the price will drop quickly as the renewable energy marketplace expands.

The Tetsii windfarm was built along the Gashuun Sukhait Road in the Gobi Desert, the same road that is used to truck coal from the Tavan Tolgoi mine into China. Sheep that graze there have had their coats turn black from coal dust and the exhaust of trucks that idle in long lines to bring the coal across the border. But on the other side of the road, white wind turbines reach towards the sky, promising a cleaner future.

Unlike the fraught discovery of mineral deposits, generating renewable energy may give Mongolia an opportunity to not only develop itself, but to develop the world in a sustainable way.

Aubrey Menard is an author of "Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild Wild East” book and a highly sought-after expert on politics, elections, and democracy. She’s been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Politico, and the South China Morning Post. She lived in Mongolia and worked on democracy and governance issues in Asia and other parts of the world.

A total of 2,158 China-Europe freight trains passed through the border port of Erenhot in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the first 11 months of this year, an increase of 53.4 percent year on year, according to the local railway operator.

Among them, the number of outbound trains during the period was 1,023, up 54.3 percent year on year, while 1,135 inbound trains were recorded, up 52.6 percent, according to the China Railway Hohhot Group.

To better meet the needs of the China-Europe freight train service, Erenhot’s railway department transformed part of its bulk cargo space, which originally handled logs and iron ore, into container reloading areas for the trains. The train reloading and handling capacities have risen by some 30 percent.

Initiated in 2011, the China-Europe cargo rail transport service is considered a significant part of the Belt and Road Initiative to boost trade between China and countries participating in the program. Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, the service remains a reliable transportation channel.

The Erenhot Port is the largest land port on the border between China and Mongolia. So far, there are 42 routes of China-Europe freight trains via the land port.

Mutton from sheep donated by Mongolia arrived at local hospitals on Monday morning to thank medical workers for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

China’s neighboring country donated 30,000 sheep during the pandemic in February.

On November 13, the animals were sent to China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region after they had been cleaned, tested negative for novel coronavirus and quarantined for 30 days in Mongolia according to epidemic prevention regulations.

They were slaughtered before being sent to Hubei Province, former frontier of China’s COVID-19 fight.

The Hubei government said in November that the mutton would be sent to front-line medical workers from all over the country who had fought the pandemic in the province.

On last Friday and Monday, hundreds of boxes of the meat with the certificate of quality inspection were sent to local hospitals, including Zhongshan Hospital and Ruijin Hospital.

Chen Erzhen, deputy president of Ruijin Hospital and leader of the third Shanghai medical team sent to Wuhan in Hubei, said: “I am so glad that they share the mutton with us. It let me recall the days in Wuhan.”

Gao Cunyou, a medical worker at Jiading District’s mental health center, said the meat was delicious with spring onions and ginger.

Staff at Zhongshan Hospital said they would also share the meat with other colleagues who had dedicated themselves to COVID-19 prevention and treatment.

All medical workers from 56 local hospitals will have enjoyed the food by the end of this year.

Medical workers from other areas, including Sichuan, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces also received the mutton recently.

On December 1, Mongolia completed 19 days of quarantine meant to stop the first cases of local transmission of COVID-19. The total number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Mongolia has reached 812. There have been no fatalities so far. The case count has been steadily increasing since March. The number of imported cases via repatriated citizens stands at 383 – that means the number of locally transmitted cases, following the first such case on November 11, quickly exceeded the imported cases.

When the Mongolian State Emergency Committee announced a full curfew for five days on November 12, it faced several clusters of patients with COVID-19. One cluster included a truck driver who had recently returned from Russia and underwent a 21-day quarantine at a hotel. It has since been revealed that the people who were undergoing quarantine at that hotel repeatedly violated the isolation procedures. More than 40 people have been included in this cluster.

Another cluster of COVID-19 infections was quickly pinpointed to Selenge province. Selenge is Mongolia’s northernmost province and is home to a big border crossing checkpoint with Russia. Even though the border has been closed for human traffic since March, cross-border traffic in goods has continued to operate. The border has since been closed for an indefinite period. More than 183 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Selenge province.

The third and most troubling cluster occurred among railroad employees. Mongolia operates a north-to-south bound railroad that connects Russia, Mongolia, and China. The majority of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Mongolia have been the railroad employees and their family members. The railroad passes through the provinces of Selenge, Darkhan, Orkhon, and Gobisumber.

During the 19 days of full curfew, more than 188,044 PCR and rapid tests were conducted. Mongolia has a population of 3.3 million, so the number of tests equates to 5.7 percent of the population. In Selenge, 18,000 people were tested – virtually every person in the province. Darkhan city, Mongolia’s second largest city with a population of 100,000, went a different route. They have asked people to volunteer one person for testing per family. More than 28,000 people were tested within a span of three days. Also, 16,000 personnel from the Mongolian railroad were tested.

Because the capital of Ulaanbaatar has introduced a curfew, more than 40,000 people who live outside of the city were stuck. Within a span of four days, all the people who wanted to go back were given PCR tests. Since none of them were infected, they were allowed to return and instructed to self-isolate when they reached their destination.

Mongolian government officials have been hopeful that they were able to trace and isolate all the COVID-19 patients, but to be on the safe side, they have extended the curfew for another 10 days. People have been instructed to continue to wear masks and go outside only for food and medical emergencies.

Even though the story is still not over, we can point to some lessons learned from the recent emergence of local transmission in Mongolia.

Mongolia introduced strict quarantine measures, such as closing the border and asking all citizens to wear masks, on January 25. The early recommendation to wear masks has been essential in preventing transmission of the infection. After 10 months of no local transmission of COVID-19, people and government officials alike started to relax. The strict measures that kept Mongolia safe have been abandoned. Maintaining a strict regimen is difficult to practice for many months.

Because Mongolia was able to be COVID-19 free for more than 10 months, it could prepare for the eventual cases by stockpiling masks, PPE suits, essential medicine, and respirators. Several hospitals have been designated as COVID-19 centers and the staff members were prepared to deal with patients. Mongolia has also purchased several new PCR laboratories in strategic locations close to border towns, and acquired mobile ones. The mobile laboratories were essential in the provincial towns and allowed the medical personnel to rapidly deploy and conduct tests on a short notice.

Though the medical personnel have been good thus far in tracing all the people who have been in contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases, in a big epidemic, tracing large number of people by hand would be difficult if not impossible. Utilizing tracing applications on mobile phones, similar to South Korea, will be essential. Also, because large amounts of people were being asked to use websites to check the results of their tests, the websites repeatedly crashed. Mobilizing new hi-tech methods to monitor and trace COVID-19 infections would be essential in keeping the numbers down.

Mongolia was COVID-19 free for more than 10 months. That was no accident. The strict procedures that were imposed to keep the virus at bay have worked for almost a year. But the country’s recent experience shows that maintaining high level of preparedness for a prolonged time is difficult, if not impossible.

Anandsaikhan Nyamdavaa is an independent consultant based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Bank of Mongolia (BoM) has provided funding of MNT 175 billion to Khaan, Khas, Capitron, Transport Development, Bogd and State Banks in accordance with their submitted requests.

With its resolution No.5 dated September 14 and resolution No.6 dated November 23, the BoM Monetary Policy Committee decided to announce 2-year repo trading with an aim to provide long-term financing for non-mining exports and SMEs.

Moreover, it was decided to provide a financing of MNT 230 billion in total in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the BoM announced its first long-term repo trading on November 30.

The banks will spend the funding for re-financing normal loans issued in MNT to entities operating in non-mining export and small and medium sized production sectors that meet requirements approved by the BoM and issuing new loans.

As a result, the entities are now available to submit requests to the afore-mentioned banks for reducing loan interest to less than 10.5 percent and exempting from principle payment of loan for less than six months of period.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry has reported the results of the harvesting of 2020.

This year, 428.9 thousand tons of grain, of which 408.1 thousand tons of wheat, 240.5 thousand tons of potatoes, 113.5 thousand tons of vegetables, 21.2 thousand tons of oil plants and 169.4 thousand tons of fodder plants were harvested from 522 thousand hectares of land.

It requires 306 thousand tons of wheat to secure the domestic need of flour. Currently, it is short by 68 thousand tons. In connection with the global outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, it is needed to stock up additional 82 thousand tons of wheat for the domestic need. The shortage was due to the increased frequency of precipitation in summer and autumn. Moreover, farmers made the wheat as a substitution to fodder plant in response to the drought and poor pasture, which negatively affected the crop balance.

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. ‘The Hu’ Band has recorded a version of ‘Sad But True’ by Metallica in Mongolian language in the style of The Hu.

Within three days once the new version uploaded on Youtube, the views have reached about a million.

Chinese heavy equipment maker XCMG has delivered a DL560 wheel bulldozer to a mining customer in Mongolia.

The DL560 is the company's largest wheel loader, and the delivery marks full access for Mongolia's mining industry to XCMG's entire product line of high-tonnage loaders and wheel dozers.

The DL560 model is designed to be the first choice for operators of ports and large mines, XCMG said.

Chairman Wang Min said in a statement: "Our products ... have been widely used in the country. XCMG has the highest market share in Mongolia among all Chinese brands, and is now becoming the first choice for the local Mongolian construction machinery industry."

The DL560 wheel bulldozer comes with a Roll Over Protective Structure (ROPS) and Falling Object Protective Structure (FOPS) certified pressurized cabin and sound and light warning devices incorporated by an advanced electronic monitoring system.

XCMG is also introducing a load-sensing variable hydraulic system to the DL560 model, which can reduce fuel consumption by 7%.

The company has established a local spare parts center in the country, offering comprehensive after-sales support.