Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) made decisions at its irregular meeting held today to set the policy rate at 6 percent, reducing it by 2 percentage point. Moreover the committee lowered the reserve requirement ratio of tugrug by 2.5 percentage point to 6 percent, restructure and defer the consumer loans until July 1, 2021, and introduce long-term refinancing tools to support SMEs and non-mining exports.

“This decision is aimed at mitigating the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the banking and financial sector, as well as the financial burden on citizens, businesses and financial institutions. It will also support financial and economic stability without compromising inflation targets in the medium term. Annual inflation reached 2.4 percent nationwide in October 2020 and 2.6 percent in Ulaanbaatar.

Inflation will increase slightly in the coming months due to the base period, but will remain low due to economic activity and will not exceed the target level. The economy contracted by 9.7 percent in the first half of 2020 due to the pandemic, but it slowed to -3.1 percent in the third quarter, improving the balance of payments forecast.

The quarantine measures imposed in November to curb the spread of the pandemic have had a positive effect on public health and but it expected to slow economic recovery in the short term.

Real economic, financial and commodity market indicators show that the global economic activity is recovering in the second half of 2020.

Although vaccine testing is nearing completion, the second and third waves of the pandemic hit many countries, and economic uncertainty remains high.

Monetary and macroeconomic prudential measures to mitigate the pandemic will increase financing for SMEs and non-mining exports, reduce the cost of financing, mitigate the domestic economic downturn, and support the stability of the banking sector.

The Bank of Mongolia will continue to take appropriate measures to prevent credit disruptions in the banking system while supporting the liquidity of banks, households and enterprises” reports B.Lhagvasuren, the Governor of the Bank of Mongolia.

Director of the Monetary Policy Department B.Bayardavaa said, “The Bank of Mongolia set the policy rate at 6.4 percent in 2007. This is the first time that the policy rate has been reduced to 6 percent since then.

The policy rate has been reduced by a total of 5 percentage points this year, as it is expected that the reduction will not lower the ability to restore economic stability and reduce inflation in the medium term. The reason of decreasing the policy rate in conjunction with the prudent macroeconomic policies is that the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee becomes an impetus to ease the financial situation.

The reduction of banks' required reserves ratio by 2.5 points is releasing MNT 400 billion in the banking system. This is a measure to support the bank's highly liquid assets, enabling the banks to further create relatively flexible conditions for its borrowers and renew their contracts.

Deferred loan repayments will ease the burden on the solvency of individuals and businesses, which in turn supports the economy through monetary policy."

NAGOYA--Oyunchimeg Khongorzul racked her brain when she read a newspaper article online that the National University of Mongolia, her alma mater, had been built on the backs of Japanese detainees.

Khongorzul, who commonly goes by the name Zora, didn’t recall having heard about the internment of Japanese in Mongolia after World War II when she studied international relations at her university.

Nor did she remember having learned about the topic during history classes.

Zora, 39, a reporter for Chukyo TV Broadcasting Co., has directed a documentary on the subject, which won the runner-up prize for a TV program in the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association’s JBA Awards in November.

“Bayartai: A farewell 72 years after internment in Mongolia” is based on the research and interviews she conducted over eight years.

Her research started in 2011 when she was in the first year of her career at the Nagoya-based broadcaster. Zora, who studied at a university in Tokyo, joined the company following a stint as a part-timer.

Zora learned there were about 12,000 Japanese internees in Mongolia, of whom 1,600 or so lost their lives under forced labor.

Behind the prize-winning TV program is a wealth of personal histories, both her own and a former Japanese internee in Mongolia.

Starting in 2013, Zora began attending annual meetings of the Mongol Kai (Mongolia society), which organizes former Japanese internees in Mongolia. She got acquainted with Masao Tomohiro, a 95-year-old resident of Kobe, in the process.

Tomohiro was in Manchukuo, in today’s northeastern China, when World War II ended. He was taken by Soviet troops to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia.

Tomohiro had both his legs amputated during the internment in Mongolia, where he suffered frostbite in the intense cold. He now wears prosthetic legs.

After he was repatriated, he returned to Mongolia on more than 40 occasions despite his physical disability. He visited the graves of his comrades-in-arms left in Mongolia, collected their remains and supported an orphanage founded by a former army surgeon.

Tomohiro contacted Zora in spring 2019 to tell her that he was going on his “last” trip to console the spirits of the dead. He had not been back to Mongolia since 2011, partly because of his advanced age.

Zora accompanied him on that consolatory trip in June last year.

Tomohiro visited the former site of a hospital where he had his legs amputated. He was also reunited with a woman who had grown up in the orphanage.

He visited a memorial dedicated to his dead comrades in Mongolia to bid his final farewell.

“Bayartai,” the Mongolian for goodbye, literary means, “(Go) with joy,” and has the connotation of hopes for a happy reunion.

“Tomohiro once left Mongolia as an internee, but he returned to the country on many occasions to see his (dead) comrades-in-arms, and he has also maintained ties with Mongolians by supporting the orphanage,” Zora said in explaining why she chose “Bayartai” as the program’s title.

After the program was aired in December last year, Zora revisited Mongolia to incorporate viewpoints from the Mongolian side.

She appeared on Mongolian TV and called on people to provide information. She got an opportunity to interview, a 96-year-old former Mongolian soldier who was a prison guard for Japanese internees.

Zora recomposed her program by including the results of her research trip and had it aired under the same title in May, which won the JBA runner-up prize.

“I am happy about the award, which will provide an opportunity for people to learn about the internment of Japanese in Mongolia,” she said.

There was a scene that was not included in the TV program but nevertheless meant a lot to Zora.

That is when she said “thank you” to Tomohiro outside the National University of Mongolia while she was accompanying him on his last consolatory trip.

“I wanted to convey my gratitude to him on behalf of my compatriots after I learned about the hardships of those who perished through my research and interviews,” Zora said.

“I want this program to be aired on a Mongolian TV station,” she added. “I want an inscription to be engraved one day on a pillar at my alma mater to say, ‘This university was built by Japanese.’ I want everybody to know that as a fact.”

On November 20, today, Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia's largest copper and gold mining company, released the latest edition of its performance scorecard, highlighting key performance metrics for the third quarter of 2020, and provided an update on underground development, and its continued prevention measures on COVID-19.

Oyu Tolgoi was awarded the Copper Mark, the copper industry’s new responsible production recognition programme. The Copper Mark requires the company to demonstrate that it meets over 30 criteria for responsible environmental, social and governance operating practices.

Oyu Tolgoi chief executive officer, Armando Torres, said, “We are pleased to be among the first in the copper industry to be awarded the Copper Mark, demonstrating our commitment to responsible mining and transparency. We achieved this together with all our stakeholders and communities in Mongolia. We will continue upholding the highest social and environmental standards and draw on the advice of environmental experts and the communities in which we operate.”

The company is continuing its close monitoring of the COVID-19 situation with its Business Resilience Team and is taking preventive measures throughout the operations. The preventive protocols are in full compliance with the guidance and decrees issued by the Government of Mongolia, State Emergency Committee, and the local authorities in Umnugovi province and Khanbogd soum, reports Oyu Tolgoi.

Q3 2020 Operational Update

• Open pit operations continued uninterrupted.

• Achieved an All Injury Frequency Rate (AIFR) of 0.17 per 200,000 people/hours worked.

• Maintained excellence in water saving, using 0.35 cubic metres of raw water per tonne of ore processed compared to its target of 0.55, and achieving an average water-recycling rate of 87.5 per cent, compared to its target of 80 per cent, at the end of the third quarter.

• Ninety-four per cent of Oyu Tolgoi’s workforce were Mongolian citizens.

• Paid US$201 million in the form of taxes, fees and other payments to the Government of Mongolia as of the end of the third quarter of 2020. Since 2010, Oyu Tolgoi has paid US$2.8 billion in taxes, fees and other payments including VAT to Mongolian suppliers.

• Collaborated with 703 suppliers by the end of the third quarter of 2020, of which 468 are national businesses, which accounts for 73 per cent of the total operations procurement spend.

Q3 2020 Production Update

• Mined copper production from the open pit was 28 per cent higher than the same quarter of 2019 and steady quarter-on-quarter reflective of the move to higher grade areas of the open pit in 2020, primarily due to accelerated mine development and production phasing. Access to higher copper and gold grades is expected to continue for the remainder of 2020, which was originally planned for the first half of 2021.

• Q3 2020 mill throughput was slightly higher than Q3 2019 due to slightly higher mill availability and an increased milling rate associated with softer ore.

• Copper and gold production guidance for 2020 remains within the ranges of 140,000 to 170,000 tonnes and 155,000 to 180,000 ounces respectively, with gold production trending towards the higher end of the range.

Underground Development Update

• Work on the project has continued to progress despite COVID-19 controls and ongoing international travel restrictions issued by the Government of Mongolia.

• Care and maintenance activities continue at Shafts 3 and 4; some commissioning activities have advanced in preparation for shaft sinking, including rope installation on Shaft 4. Further progress will require the remobilisation of international shaft sinking specialists and preparation is underway to mobilise some of these contractors before the end of 2020 (subject to change due to the current COVID-19 restrictions in the country).

• Overall, underground lateral development has now reached 45,858 equivalent metres, or around 90 per cent of the required development to support firing of the first drawbell.

• All surface infrastructure required for sustainable production is complete and the team is focused on progressing the critical underground Material Handling System 1 (MHS1) to the stage needed ahead of the first drawbell firing. The balance of project infrastructure to be delivered post completion of MHS1 is not needed for sustainable production, however, it is needed to support the production ramp-up profile.

• Preliminary indications from the definitive estimate process are that first sustainable production is trending towards the earlier months of the October 2022 to June 2023 range. The estimated development capital cost remains within the range of US$6.6 to US$7.1 billion. This assessment has now been updated to include known cost and schedule impacts from COVID-19 and assumes an easing of travel restrictions and COVID-19 related controls from the time of reporting. This remains subject to ongoing review as part of finalising the definitive estimate of cost and schedule for Panel 0, expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.

• On 3 July, Oyu Tolgoi announced the completion of an updated feasibility study (OTFS20) prepared in accordance with Mongolian regulations and standards. Registration of the Updated Reserve and Resource Report (RR19) has been delayed beyond the 150-day period of review since its submission in February 2020. Registration of RR19 is required before formal consideration and acceptance of the OTFS20. In accordance with the 2009 Investment Agreement and Mongolian regulation, the Government of Mongolia is required to consider each of the RR19 and OTFS20 within 150 days from submission. The OTFS20 also forms the basis for the uplift in the overall underground project cost that is required to be approved prior to the under-cut decision (decision to initiate caving) in 2021.

Other Updates

• Oyu Tolgoi has been working to progress power negotiations with the Government of Mongolia as required under the terms of the Power Source Framework Agreement Amendment signed in June 2020:

• An extension of power import arrangements with China’s Inner Mongolian Power Company is required by 1 March 2021 in order to ensure sufficient certainty on future supply of power before the under-cut decision is taken.

• A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for power supply to Oyu Tolgoi from a State Owned Power Plant at Tavan Tolgoi that will be funded by the Government of Mongolia is required to be executed by 31 March 2021.

• Following the agreement to purchase some power from the Mongolian national grid, on 3 September 2020, Oyu Tolgoi LLC and the Southern Region Electricity Distribution Network executed a PPA to supply power to the Oyu Tolgoi camps.

Background

Oyu Tolgoi LLC is a strategic partnership between the Government of Mongolia, Turquoise Hill Resources and Rio Tinto. Located in the South Gobi, Oyu Tolgoi commenced shipment of product to customers in July 2013. Oyu Tolgoi is managed by Rio Tinto, which is investing global expertise and cutting-edge technology to help develop Mongolia’s mining industry and ensure Oyu Tolgoi is one of the world’s most advanced mines.

Mongolia reported 21 more COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the national tally to 629, according to the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD).

The latest confirmed cases were locally transmitted or reported in Selenge province in the country's north, said the NCCD in a statement.

Mongolia has so far reported 203 domestically transmitted cases, notably in the capital city of Ulan Bator and the provinces of Selenge, Darkhan-Uul, Govisumber, Orkhon and Dornogovi.

The first locally transmitted case in Mongolia was a woman whose 29-year-old husband, a transport driver, returned from Russia and tested positive for the virus four days after he was released from 21-day mandatory isolation on Nov. 6.

The Asian country has imposed a nationwide lockdown until Dec. 1 to halt the virus' spread and identify all people who had contact with locally transmitted COVID-19 patients. Enditem

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A broad gauge of Asian shares edged up to record highs on Monday morning as hopes for imminent coronavirus vaccines buoyed investor sentiment, but worries over the impact of economic lockdowns and uncertainty over U.S. stimulus capped gains.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.38%, pushing past a previous record high touched on Friday.

Trading activity was thin early in the Asian day, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday. Nikkei futures added 0.16% to 25,785 and Seoul’s Kospi was 0.84% higher.

The regional index also got a boost from Australian shares which gained 0.81% as the country eased some COVID-19 restrictions. Most of the country has seen no new community infections or deaths in several weeks.

In contrast, in the United States - where COVID-19 infections are quickening, total cases topped 12 million over the weekend and more than 255,000 have died - many hopes are focused on rapid vaccine rollouts.

A top government official of the U.S. government’s vaccine development effort said Sunday that the first vaccines could be given to U.S. healthcare workers and others recommended by mid-December.

Apart from the impact of pandemic-related lockdowns, many investors have taken a dim view of the slow pace of progress over stimulus to boost the U.S. economy.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that key pandemic lending programs at the Federal Reserve would expire on Dec. 31, putting the outgoing Trump administration at odds with the central bank and potentially adding stress to the economy.

“Discussion is only beginning and may take some time if the recent partisan disagreements over the composition and magnitude of fiscal spending are any indication,” analysts at ANZ said in a note.

U.S. e-mini futures for the S&P 500 were 0.25% higher at 3,563 on Monday after U.S. shares slumped on Friday on a combination of dwindling aid for the U.S. economy and rising novel coronavirus infection rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.75%, the S&P 500 fell 0.68% and the Nasdaq Composite ended down 0.42%.

In currency markets, the dollar softened 0.06% against the yen to 103.79, while the euro gained 0.16% on the day to $1.1872.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, nudged down to 92.278.

U.S. crude rose 0.07% to $42.45 a barrel and global benchmark Brent crude rose 0.33% to $45.11 per barrel.

Spot gold rose 0.11% to $1,872.63 per ounce.

Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; editing by Richard Pullin

China is to make the first attempt to retrieve rocks from the Moon since the 1970s.

It is hoped the unmanned Chang'e-5 probe, to be launched on Tuesday, will bring back samples to help understand the Moon's origin and formation.

The last mission of its kind, Luna 24, was by the Soviet Union in 1976.

If the latest probe is successful, China will become the third country to have retrieved lunar rock, after the US and the USSR.

The Chang'e-5 spacecraft- named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the Moon - will be launched by a Long March 5 rocket.

The probe will attempt to collect 2kg of samples from an as yet unvisited area of the Moon named the Ocean of Storms.

In comparison, the 1976 mission collected 170 grams, and the Apollo mission that put man on the Moon brought back 382kg of rocks and soil.

Experts are hoping Chang'e-5 will give a better understand how long the Moon remained volcanically active and when its magnetic field - essential in protecting any life from the Sun's radiation - dissipated.

China made its first lunar landing in 2013 and plans to retrieve samples from Mars within a decade.

London (CNN Business)For all their environmental overtures, banks are still pumping billions of dollars into fossil fuel companies. That could become a high-priced habit, as regulators move to tighten rules around how lenders reflect climate-related risks in their accounts.

What's happening: The European Central Bank said last week that it will start conducting "in-depth" assessments of how bank balance sheets account for climate risks in 2022.

Banks will, for example, be expected to disclose how flooding and storms could affect the value of their real estate portfolios and customer supply chains, as well as take into account losses that could arise if businesses adjust their operations to be less carbon intensive.

"Ensuring that banks' balance sheets also reflect climate-related and environmental risks is a prerequisite not only for the resilience of the banking sector, but also for the accurate pricing of these risks," the ECB's supervisory arm said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it will begin discussions with lenders on the new approach early next year.

It's a major sign that financial regulators are not going to leave climate supervision solely to governments — and with good reason.

See here: Oil majors BP (BP) and Shell (RDSB) provide a cautionary example of what can happen to asset values as a result of climate-related shifts in the economy. Both companies have written billions of dollars off their books this year because the pandemic has changed the trajectory for oil prices — and both are dramatically accelerating their move into cleaner energy as a result.

With that in mind, it's only a matter of time before America's leading investment banks, which are much bigger fossil fuel funders than their European counterparts, are forced to get a handle on their climate exposures.

The US Federal Reserve has already put lenders on notice. In a first, it directly addressed the implications of climate change for banks in this month's financial stability report, saying that better disclosure could improve the pricing of climate risks and avoid the kind of abrupt changes to asset prices that cause financial system shocks.

"Federal Reserve supervisors expect banks to have systems in place that appropriately identify, measure, control, and monitor all of their material risks, which for many banks are likely to extend to climate risks," the Fed said.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Citi (C) and Bank of America (BAC) top a list of global banks funding fossil fuel firms. Since 2016, the four banks have poured over $800 billion into companies in the coal, oil and gas sectors, according to a report by the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental group.

Some major banks have recently pledged to align financing with the Paris climate goals, but the details remain hazy and the sheer size of their exposures mean it'll be easier said than done.

Big picture: Aside from damaging the planet, climate change could lead to heavy losses at banks and threaten the stability of the financial system.

More than half the syndicated loans of major US banks are in sectors of the economy that make them vulnerable to the risks posed by climate change, according to sustainability non-profit Ceres. This extends beyond loans to fossil fuel companies and includes sectors such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture.

Investors weigh in: It's not just lenders that face a climate reckoning. Also last week, a group of global investors managing over $9 trillion in assets wrote to 36 of Europe's largest firms, including BP, Volkswagen (VLKAF) and Lufthansa (DLAKY), calling on them to address "missing" climate change costs in their accounts.

Companies were selected based on their exposure to decarbonization risks and were urged to prepare "Paris-aligned" earnings reports that reflect what climate change means for their business.

"It would not be consistent to emphasise climate risks in the strategic report but not consider these same risks in the accounts," the letter said. "If accounts leave out material climate risks, too much capital will go toward activities that put shareholder capital at risk. Worse still, this puts all our futures at risk."

China needs to immediately stop building new coal power plants and double wind and solar installations to put itself on a path to meet its 2060 carbon neutrality pledge, climate researchers said in a new report.

China’s coal power fleet, already more than 1,000 gigawatts strong, is underutilized and already includes dozens of redundant plants, researchers from Draworld Environment Research Center and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said in the report.

The country should aim to whittle its coal fleet down to about 680 gigawatts by 2030, instead of plans by some in the industry to expand it to about 1,300 gigawatts.

With solar and wind power quickly becoming as cheap or cheaper than coal, such an building spree could result in more than 2 trillion yuan ($304 billion) in stranded assets, said Zhang Shuwei, Draworld’s chief economist and the report’s lead author.

“A further expansion of the coal-fired power industry would greatly complicate this challenge, requiring a cliff-fall of coal power generation after 2030,” Zhang said.

The report comes two months after President Xi Jinping shocked the world by announcing in a United Nations speech that China will be carbon neutral by 2060, although Beijing has yet to lay out detailed steps on how the world’s biggest polluter will get there.

Draworld and CREA researchers said that to meet the goal, China needs to ban new coal plants immediately and also double the installed capacity of new wind and solar power to at least 100 gigawatts annually.

“There is no leeway to construct new long-lived fossil fuel infrastructure such as coal power, which would need premature retirement to meet China’s vision to achieve net-zero emissions,” the researchers said in the report.

(By Dan Murtaugh and Karoline Kan)

Copper price surged to a fresh two-year high on Friday following positive reports on covid-19 vaccine breakthroughs from Pfizer and Moderna.

On the Comex market, copper for delivery in December gained 3.1% to $3.3015 a pound ($7,276 a tonne) by mid-afternoon in New York. If copper closes above $3.30 it would be the highest level since January 2014.

The metal surged as much as 1.6% to $7,207.50 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange, to the highest since June 2018.

Pfizer and BioNTech SE plan to file for emergency use, allowing for the vaccine, which they say is 95% effective, to be used in the US in the next month.

Copper is heading for an eighth straight monthly gain, the longest run in almost a decade, as rebounding growth in China and signs of progress in developing a covid-19 vaccine buoy demand prospects.

Investors are also betting on a boost from spending on green infrastructure following the five-year plan hammered out by China, as well as alternative-energy initiatives outlined by US President-elect Joe Biden.

“Generally a strong week for industrial metals with vaccine news driving recovery hopes outside China where demand is already robust,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S, told Reuters.

“Positive news for the metals is compounding and copper is gaining momentum,” RJO Futures senior market strategist Peter Mooses told Bloomberg.

“Base metals have been driven by bullish news all around, and a vaccine is just what the market is looking for: a long-term solution to fears for further disruptions to a global recovery.”

Fear of supply disruptions

As coronavirus infections surge worldwide, fears of further near-term disruptions to supply are also fueling gains.

Peru’s currency fell to a record low over the last weekend amid political chaos and the largest protests in the capital Lima in decades. Experts have also warned that further upheavals threaten the fight against the coronavirus in the country, which, with a population of 32 million, has one of the world’s highest per-capita death rates from covid-19.

In a note, BMO Capital Markets said the unrest in Peru, the world’s number two copper producer behind Chile, while focused on the capital, could cause issues for copper concentrate logistics (plus other metals), should the situation escalate.

Workers at Lundin’s Candelaria in Chile pushed a strike into a second month, as operations remained at a standstill.

A worker´s union at Antofagasta Minerals’ Centinela copper mine in Chile is preparing to vote next week on a contract offer but says it will likely reject it, paving the way for a strike.

“As we see cases increase, we have to expect that further restrictions are not far behind,” ED&F Man Capital analyst Edward Meir told Bloomberg.

“The spreading virus could be raising fears that mining operations will again be halted, fueling this supply premium.”

(With files from Reuters and Bloomberg)