The head of Europe's aviation safety agency, EASA, has said Boeing's 737 Max plane will get final clearance to resume flying in Europe next week.

The agency suspended all flights of the plane in March 2019, after two fatal crashes that have been attributed to flawed flight control software.

A total of 346 people died in the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The modified plane has already been cleared for the resumption of flights in the US and Brazil.

EASA executive director Patrick Ky said a separate certification of the Max-200 variant was likely to follow in "coming weeks", allowing flights to resume before summer.

The plane's first accident occurred in October 2018, when a Lion Air jet came down in the sea off Indonesia.

The second involved an Ethiopian Airlines version that crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, just four months later.

Both have been attributed to flight control software that became active at the wrong time and prompted the aircraft to go into a catastrophic dive.

Since the Ethiopian crash, EASA has been carrying out a root-and-branch review of the 737 Max's design, independently from a similar process undertaken by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

In order to return to service, existing planes will now have to be equipped with new computer software, as well as undergoing changes to their wiring and cockpit instrumentation.

Pilots will need to undergo mandatory training, while each plane will have to undergo a test flight to ensure the changes have been carried out correctly.

US regulators have set out similar conditions.

New Delhi: The Modi government Monday decided to export Covid-19 vaccines to its neighbouring countries free-of-cost as a “goodwill” gesture, ThePrint has learnt.

The two vaccines approved in India on 3 January are Covishield and Covaxin. While Covishield is Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), Covaxin is manufactured by Bharat Biotech, and co-developed with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

On Monday, officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (parent ministry of the Department of Pharmaceuticals) met the representatives of Bharat Biotech and SII to discuss the export plan.

The government has decided to send the first tranche to help the countries “meet their immediate requirements”, official sources told ThePrint.

“As a goodwill gesture, the government is planning to send Covaxin to Mongolia, Oman, Myanmar, Philippines, Bahrain, Maldives and Mauritius,” said a senior official, who was part of the meeting.

“Covishield will be sent to Bhutan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Seychelles,” the official added.

The officials also discussed the availability of vaccines for domestic consumption after exports.

“We have decided that till now, half of the approved doses from Central Drugs Laboratory can be exported. Every country will only be given as per the requirement they have cited. Around 5 crore are available in stock with India of which 2.5 crore can be exported,” he said.

The government will procure the vaccines for export through the government-run pharmaceutical company, HLL Lifecare Limited. It had exported hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), last year through the same company.

ThePrint reached Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya’s office through text and calls for an official comment on the matter, but there was no response till the time of publishing this report.

Dispatches to be done shortly

The dispatches will be done to all the neighbours, except Pakistan, in the coming days and weeks, said a second official, without revealing the exact timeline.

“Pakistan will not be given the vaccines since they did not ask for it from the Indian government,” he added.

According to both officials, India will adopt the same model it had adopted while exporting HCQ.

“The government will follow the same model as it was done during the exports of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) at the height of the pandemic,” the official said, adding that the first requirements of exports to least developed countries will be free-of-cost, following which the subsequent shipments will be done on commercial terms.

“Countries that can afford the vaccines will not be given free-of-cost,” the second official said.

Rio Tinto's threat to abort the start of underground mining at the $US6.5 billion ($8.4 billion) Oyu Tolgoi project unless concessions are granted by the Mongolian government is neither appropriate nor necessary, according to the Rio subsidiary in charge of the project.

Turquoise Hill Resources' objection to Rio's brinkmanship over the underground expansion of Mongolia's Oyu Tolgoi mine came as new geological problems were revealed at the existing open pit that will hamper copper and gold production in the next two years.

Turquoise Hill is 50.79 per cent owned by Rio, but said it did not agree with its majority shareholder's demand for the Mongolian government to approve a number of geological, financial, engineering and power supply issues before a major mining decision is made in June.

The June decision focuses on the commencement of an "undercut" in the underground mine, which will trigger the controlled collapse of sections of rock under the caving technique adopted by Rio at the mine.

Rio has no ownership stake in the mine, but is the biggest shareholder in Turquoise Hill and has been appointed as the operator of the mine and the arranger of finance.

Turquoise Hill owns 66 per cent of the Mongolian company that owns the mine (Oyu Tolgoi LLC) with the remaining 34 per cent owned by the Mongolian government.

Turquoise Hill made clear on Tuesday morning that neither it nor the Mongolian government believed the outstanding issues identified by Rio warranted a delay to the start of underground mining.

The comments create the extraordinary situation where shareholders owning 100 per cent of the mine are being told by the contractor hired to run the mine that it cannot proceed unless certain terms are met.

The underground expansion of Oyu Tolgoi is already running 22 months late and $US1.45 billion over budget, and any further cost and schedule blowouts are a problem for Turquoise Hill and the Mongolian government, which are both struggling to fund their share of development costs and sorely need the funds injection that will come from the start of underground mining.

Adverse impact

''The criteria supporting the undercut decision, including the non-technical criteria publicly announced by Rio Tinto, have not been agreed to by the shareholders of Oyu Tolgoi LLC,'' said Turquoise Hill in a filing to the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning Australian time.

''Turquoise Hill does not agree that all of these additional non-technical criteria are either appropriate or necessary and is engaging with Rio Tinto and Erdenes (the Mongolian government) to address the areas of disagreement, with the objective, which Turquoise Hill believes it shares with Erdenes, of preserving the timeline for project completion.

''If agreement is not reached on the undercut criteria in a timely manner, or if the undercut criteria proposed by Rio Tinto are included and not met, there is a risk that the undercut will not occur as planned.

''Any significant delay to the undercut would have a materially adverse impact on schedule as well as the timing and quantum of underground capital expenditure and would materially adversely impact the timing of expected cash flows from the Oyu Tolgoi underground project, thereby increasing the amount of Turquoise Hill’s incremental funding requirement.''

Tuesday's comments are the second time Turquoise Hill has publicly aligned itself with the Mongolian government rather than its biggest shareholder in the space of seven weeks.

An unlikely alliance was formed between Turquoise Hill and the Mongolian government last month when they voted to establish an independent review of Rio's management of the mine, and the subsequent cost and schedule blowouts.

Relations between Rio and Mongolia have long been fractious, but they appear to have plumbed new depths in recent months, with Mongolia threatening to unilaterally tear-up the 2015 legal agreement that underpins the underground expansion of Oyu Tolgoi unless Rio agreed to better terms for the host government.

Cost blowouts

Rio's threat to delay the start of mining was not the only piece of bad news for Turquoise Hill on Tuesday; the existing open pit mine at Oyu Tolgoi looks set to generate less revenue in the next two years than was previously expected.

Rio altered the sequence of mining in the existing Oyu Tolgoi open pit in late 2019 in a bid to bring forward extraction of higher-grade ore, as part of efforts to mitigate the cashflow problems created by the cost and schedule blowouts on the underground project.

Those sequencing changes saw Rio bring forward the mining of a deeper section of ore called ''Phase 4B'', which contained high gold grades which would bring in solid revenues amid high gold prices.

But Rio, which is the manager and operator of the open pit, informed Turquoise Hill in recent weeks that problems had been encountered at ''4B'' which would hamper output in coming years.

''We have been advised by the manager that recent geotechnical concerns in Phase 4B have required changes to the mine design impacting both 2021 and 2022, resulting in a reduction in metal delivery expectations,'' said Turquoise Hill on Tuesday.

Reduced metal production means Turquoise Hill will likely generate less cashflow in the next two years; a crucial blow for a company which is trying to defer an injection of new funding for as long as possible.

The fact the reduced metal production has been announced by Rio, a shareholder that wants Turquoise Hill to conduct a multi-billion-dollar equity raising, risks fuelling fears about Rio's motives among angry minority shareholders in Turquoise Hill.

Turquoise Hill said it would publish a production target for 2022 in April after further studies were conducted.

As recently as November, Turquoise Hill expected the existing open pit at Oyu Tolgoi to produce between 170,000 and 200,000 tonnes of copper in 2021, with gold production forecast to be between 500,000 and 550,000 ounces.

Turquoise Hill downgraded those targets on Tuesday, saying copper production would be between 160,000 and 180,000 tonnes while gold production would be higher between 500,000 and 550,000 ounces.

The company said it would process some of the "development material" that had been extracted from the underground project alongside open pit material to achieve that goal.

Sustainable first production from the underground mine is expected to be achieved in October 2022.

While that is close to 22 months later than was envisaged when the project was revived in 2015, it is seven years later than was envisaged by Rio when it was drawing up plans for the mine in 2012.

Located in Mongolia's remote South Gobi Desert, the mine could be one of the world's top five copper producers by the end of this decade if all goes to plan, and shapes as Rio's most important growth project.

by: Peter Ker covers resource companies, based in Melbourne.

Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A total of 10 more locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 were reported across Mongolia in the last 24 hours, taking its national tally to 1,536, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Tuesday.

"We conducted 17,646 tests for COVID-19 yesterday, and 10 of them were positive," Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the NCCD's surveillance department, said during a press conference.

Meanwhile, 28 more patients have recovered from the disease, taking the total number of recoveries in the country to 994.

The Asian country has recorded two COVID-19-related deaths since confirming its first case of COVID-19 in March. Enditem

Jakob Stausholm will have to pick up a travel guide to Ulaanbaatar. Rio Tinto’s new chief executive has a challenging to-do list and atop it sits the miner’s troubled $10 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project, located 700 kilometres from the Mongolian capital. Trying to satisfy all the interested parties at once is probably a fool’s errand.

It’s surprising the whole sticky mess, along with the high tensions between Australia and China and Rio’s frayed relations with indigenous peoples, didn’t dissuade Stausholm from taking the job. Turquoise Hill Resources, the Canadian-listed company that owns two-thirds of Oyu Tolgoi, lost a fifth of its market value on Jan. 11 after suggestions that the Mongolian government might not continue with the project. Shares of Turquoise, in which Rio holds a 51% stake, have tumbled by two-thirds since 2016.

Oyu Tolgoi should be a real asset. It is expected to churn out 500,000 tonnes of copper annually later this decade. That would make it the world’s fourth biggest producer. And prices for the red metal have soared 70% since March and should stay high as demand for electricity, and therefore copper wiring, soars.

The project, however, is hamstrung by a rickety corporate structure and a major funding problem. Big digs typically involve private-sector entities owning the equity, with generous annual royalties paid to the host state’s exchequer. Aside from Rio, Oyu Tolgoi has three main stakeholders: the state, the non-Mongolian minority shareholders who own 49% of Turquoise, and Odey Asset Management, a pushy British hedge fund that is a Rio investor and has a short position in Turquoise. Ulaanbaatar holds 34% of Oyu Tolgoi LLC, and Turquoise owns the rest.

The main headache is that Mongolia, with a GDP of just $14 billion and limited cash, has long funded its portion of the project’s capital investment with loans from Turquoise. It represents a big chunk of the $7 billion advanced to Oyu Tolgoi over the last decade, according to company disclosures, at an annual interest rate of 6.5 percentage points above the London Interbank Offered Rate. It also borrowed another $1.3 billion from Turquoise to finance its Oyu Tolgoi share purchases. This all must be repaid before Mongolia can receive dividends. Even if the project had been on time and budget, Ulaanbaatar would have faced a long wait.

As it is, the project costs recently jumped sharply to $6.75 billion, so any payouts could take decades. Unsurprisingly, that’s causing a political stink in Mongolia. Meanwhile, Turquoise faces a funding gap of at least $3 billion between the point in 2022 when its remaining $1.3 billion of cash runs out, and the date a few years later when Oyu Tolgoi’s main underground phase starts throwing off cash.

Equity or debt?

Stausholm can choose between an incremental solution and a radical one. The former, favoured by some Turquoise minority shareholders, would deploy various measures to plug the funding gap. Extending the maturity on about a third of the $4.4 billion in financing Oyu Tolgoi obtained from international lenders in 2015 would reduce servicing costs. Issuing other debt, pre-selling some of the mine’s metal, and higher copper price assumptions would do the rest.

Odey prefers a bolder approach. Rather than increase Turquoise’s debt, it thinks Rio should push for a big rights issue. That makes sense insofar as the $3 billion funding gap might actually increase if Turquoise ends up having to pay for a power station to provide the mine’s energy, which is currently provided by China. But given that Turquoise’s market capitalisation is less than $2.5 billion, any investors that didn’t take part in the equity raise would be heavily diluted.

Stausholm won’t be eager to antagonise Turquoise’s minority shareholders, nor put still more of his company’s money into an Oyu Tolgoi-related capital call. With minimal net debt, however, Rio is in a position to push for the most sustainable long-term solution. His company already guarantees the $4.4 billion project finance facility and consolidates the $8.3 billion of loans. An equity hike would leave Rio with more of the project’s cash flows without increasing the debt it underwrites.

Rio’s boss also needs to tread carefully around Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia’s nuclear option would be to dismiss the $140 billion miner from the project and bring in one of its rivals instead. Tearing up such a high-profile contract might hurt foreign investment flows into the country, but Oyu Tolgoi’s significance could make it worth the risk. In addition to solving the funding gap, the host country wants more cash from the mine it feels it owns.

Stausholm’s least-bad strategy therefore probably has two strands. First, Rio should back an equity hike to plug the funding gap. If Turquoise’s minority shareholders are optimistic about Oyu Tolgoi, they should be ready to support a rights issue.

Second, Stausholm should rework the loan structure to appease Mongolia. One option is to put 75% of the cash that Oyu Tolgoi generates toward reducing debt and use the rest for payouts to Ulaanbaatar. It might even take a 50-50 split to ease relations between miner and state. Under this approach, along with having to answer to angry Turquoise owners, Rio might take a financial hit. But it is likely to do so in almost any solution.

There’s no way for Stausholm to make everyone happy. As the new broom, he at least has a freer hand compared to his predecessor Jean-Sebastien Jacques, who was so closely associated with the project. He may as well use it.

(By George Hay)

President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga submitted an official letter to the Cabinet regarding Oyu Tolgoi, and underlined his intention to discuss the matter on the level of the National Security Council.

The President stated: “To accommodate the common interests of the country in the operations of Oyu Tolgoi project is the foremost responsibility of the Mongolian Government.

Therefore, a proposal was submitted to the Cabinet, dated December 23rd, 2020, on collaborating with the Cabinet through representatives to exercise Presidential support for the Government’s position, policy and actions towards the issues surrounding the ongoing lawsuits at international arbitrary courts and other Oyu Tolgoi-related matters. The Cabinet’s inaction regarding the proposal, since it has been submitted, has now become a matter of concern.

The unconcerned, obscure and unlawful association of the Cabinet to the head of state, who exercises the authority of leading the National Security Council and answers to the people of Mongolia, leads to suspicion that the authorities might be under direct or indirect influence of those, who have serious conflicts of interest.”

President Battulga presented to Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh the official letter, which demands delivery of complete and comprehensive documents on the Oyu Tolgoi issue to the President within January 18th, 2021.

Russian gas producer Novatek plans to send cargo from its Yamal LNG facility to Asian markets via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in early May with the help of an ice-breaker, sources told Bloomberg.

The cargo would become the earliest-ever shipment of liquefied natural gas to Asia, beating last year’s record by almost two weeks and paving the way for a record navigation season this year.

The exact timing of the LNG shipment will depend on weather conditions and the thickness of the ice, according to officials. "The possibility of such a voyage in May is under discussion,” said Nikita Sekretarev, spokesperson for Russia’s Sovcomflot shipping company.

Stretching more than 5,000km between the Barents Sea and the Bering Strait, the NSR is the shortest passage between Europe and Asia. Its eastern part is usually shut for navigation for several months at the start of the year due to thick ice, which limits shipment potential.

Novatek sent an eastbound LNG cargo via the NSR with ice-breaker support in late May in 2020, which was the earliest start to the navigation season in the area to date. Shipments continued to Asia through January, making it a record long navigation season in the eastern Arctic.

Earlier this month, Novatek sent two LNG tankers (‘Christophe de Margerie’ and ‘Nikolay Yevgenov’) to China through the NSR. Industry officials said that the vessels don’t need ice-breaker support as the current conditions in the eastern Arctic are mild. Nevertheless, the tankers will use an ice-breaker on their return to Russia across the passage in February.

According to Sovcomflot, which owns the ‘Christophe de Margerie’, a cargo ship has never made a February voyage in the eastern Arctic. The planned February return voyage is part of “the systemic efforts to gradually extend transit navigation in the eastern sector of the Arctic,” said Sekretarev, adding: “In the future, the goal is to set up safe year-round navigation” across the Northern Route.

Russia wants to turn the NSR into a major trade artery between Europe and Asia. Last year, 33 million tons of freight were transported using the Arctic route.

PARIS (Reuters) - The French central bank said on Monday it would exit from coal and limit exposure to gas and oil in its investment portfolio by 2024 as part of a shift towards more environmentally friendly assets.

Many central banks have committed to green up their investment portfolios as part of a push to encourage the financial system to support a less environmentally damaging economy.

The Bank of France manages 22 billion euros ($26.6 billion) of its own portfolio investments separately from asset purchases related to its monetary policy operations.

It said in a statement that by the end of this year it would no longer invest in companies which generate more than 2% of their revenues from coal and reduce the threshold to zero by the end of 2024. Currently the threshold stands at 10%.

It said it would also exclude by 2024 companies with more than 10% of revenue coming from oil or 50% from gas, which could potentially mean the central bank would have to shun group’s like French energy major Total .

Already from this year it said it would turn its back on companies that derive 10% of their revenues from shale oil or gas, tar sands or exploration in the Arctic or deep water.

As a shareholder, it would also from this year vote against new fossil fuel projects by the companies it invests in.

The Bank of France does not disclose in detail the asset allocation of its portfolios.

($1 = 0.8281 euros)

Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has evacuated around 28,200 nationals since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

"Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, Mongolia has evacuated a total of 28,195 nationals on chartered flights, buses or trains from 93 countries across the world," Lkhanaajav Munkhtushig, director general of the consular department at the ministry, said at a press conference.

"We planned to operate two chartered flights to South Korea this month to repatriate 320 more nationals," Munkhtushig added.

As of Monday, 8,433 Mongolians living abroad have expressed their wish to return home, according to the official.

Mongolia entered a heightened state of readiness in February last year to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including the suspension of international passenger flights.

The land-locked Asian country has reported a total of 1,526 COVID-19 cases, among which over 1,100 were locally transmitted.

The country, with a population of 3.3 million, has so far recorded two COVID-19 deaths since its first case was confirmed in March.

(18 January 2021), NATO marked the successful conclusion of a multi-year project designed to bolster the cyber defence capacity of Mongolia, one of NATO’s partners across the globe. The project ran between 2017 and 2020 and was supported by NATO’s Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme. It entailed the establishment of a Cyber Security Centre for the Mongolian Armed Forces and the provision of specialized training and equipment. It also featured technical support from the NATO Communications and Information Agency.

The inauguration of the new Centre and Cyber Incident Response Capability for the Ministry of Defence and General Staff of the Mongolian Armed Forces was celebrated with a virtual ribbon cutting ceremony. NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană and Mongolia’s Minister of Defence Saikhanbayar Gursed joined from Brussels and Ulaanbaatar, respectively.

The NATO Deputy Secretary General highlighted the importance of this project to enhance the resilience and security of Mongolia’s information technology systems. “The successful completion of this project means that Mongolia is now better equipped to prevent, mitigate, and respond to cyber challenges that seek to threaten its institutions,” he pointed out. The Mongolian Minister of Defence stressed that “not only network engineers and technicians are benefitting from the equipment and software provided by the project, but also all the users of Armed Forces network.” He further remarked: “This project is a complete package, with the inclusion of effective cyber training for the cyber security team and provision of the equipment with the latest technology and official licensing.”

At the event, the Chief of Staff of the NATO Communications and Information Agency Major General Göksel Sevindik said: “This new capability will be both a national hub for responding to cyber-attacks and a focal point for collaboration with other nations on cyber security.”

The NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme has played an important part in boosting the practical cooperation between NATO and Mongolia on issues of common concern; and it has contributed to the consolidation of this partnership. “The wide range of activities supported by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme helps to create a thriving community of scientists, experts and policymakers across the world - from NATO and partner countries - who share knowledge and develop innovative ideas to address the security challenges of today and tomorrow,” Dr Deniz Beten, Senior SPS and Partnership Cooperation Advisor pointed out. Since 2012, the Science for Peace and Security Programme has cooperated with Mongolia not only to tackle cyber security challenges, but also to support efforts towards the establishment of a database to track the rehabilitation and restoration of former military sites in the country.