Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ In November 2020, the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) purchased 1.7 tons of precious metal. Thus, total amount of precious metal purchase has reached 21 tons since the beginning of this year, showing an increase of 6.5 tons compared to the same period of previous year.

19.3 tons of the total purchased precious metal were gold and 1.7 tons were silver.

The BoM branches in Darkhan-Uul and Bayankhongor aimag bought 106.5 kg and 98.7 kg of precious metals respectively in November, bringing total amount to 1.8 tons.

The average price of BoM’s purchase of 1 gram of gold was MNT 170,810.51 in November.

China’s coking coal imports fell to a five-month low in October, hit by slowing Australian arrivals following an unofficial ban on coal imports from the country that was imposed in early October.

China imported 5.89 million tonnes of coking coal in October, down by 12.4 percent from 6.72 million tonnes in September but up by 3.5 percent from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data.

Australian imports fell by 21 percent from a year earlier and by 23 percent from September to 1.53 million tonnes in October, the lowest level in 2020. China warned its state-owned steelmakers and power plants to stop importing Australian coal with immediate effect in early October, injecting more uncertainty into spot markets that had anticipated eased restrictions into 2021.

Imports from Mongolia rose by 14 percent in October from a year earlier to 3.26 million tonnes but fell by 16pc from a record high of 3.89 million tonnes in September. Mongolian imports declined for the first time since the border reopened from late March, as a resurgence of Covid-19 cases closed some parts of the highway.

Canadian imports more than doubled from a year earlier to 405,000 tonnes in October. Chinese mills have been seeking alternatives to Australian coal amid the import ban, particularly the premium low-volatile grade that can be matched by US and Canadian coals. Shipments from Russia also increased, rising by 20 percent from a year earlier to 650,000 tonnes.

Chinese demands that Mongolian haulage drivers be tested for coronavirus (COVID-19) at border crossings have substantially impacted coal exports.

Mongolia went into lockdown on November 12 after, for the first time, the country recorded community transmissions of the virus. On November 23, the number of trucks transporting Mongolian coal into China via the Gashuunsukhait-Gantsmod landport entry in South-Gobi dropped to 211. Two days later, the daily total making it past the tightened customs health clearance process fell to less than 20. The situation was reportedly exacerbated by some drivers who were caught forging test results.

Gashuunsukhait-Gantsmod accounts for more than half of Mongolia's coal exports. Currently, the Tavan Tolgoi-Tsagaan Khad route into China is operating normally. However, short-haul transportations from Tsagaan Khad to Gashuunsukhait are subject to delays.

The Gashuunsukhait border customs agency has approached the Mongolian government and major coal mining companies in a bid to expedite the setting up of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test lab.

Trucks stuck at border

More than 3,000 coal and other trucks are said to be stuck at the border. Drivers have complained of having to pay out of their own pockets for temporary lodgings and testing for coronavirus. Many have requested permission to turn back from the border and return home, but with Mongolia on lockdown and travel through its regions restricted, their requests were refused.

Mongolia’s Mining Minister Yondon Geleg, meanwhile, has issued an order to mining organisations and officials to provide rapid testing for mining employees and to create safety zones at the main mineral export ports.

Mongolia’s economy is heavily dependent on exporting natural resources, mainly minerals, to China.

In September, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) updated its 2020 growth forecast for Mongolia to a contraction of 2.6%.

Mongolian Finance Minister Khurelbaatar Chimed was actually boasting in early September that Mongolia had exceeded the 2,000-coal-trucks-per-day threshold as regards exports to China. That progress has clearly come to a grinding halt.

Budget exposed to heavy pressure

The Natural Resource Governance Institute has predicted that if Mongolian coal exports face substantial obstacles, heavy pressure will be placed on the state budget. In its report on coronavirus impacts in Mongolia, it stated: “Any new reduction in exports, coupled with the government’s fiscal stimulus, could put exert significant pressure on the balance of payments and the $3.6bn in foreign reserves may quickly dissipate as the central bank tries to keep the Mongolian tugrik afloat.”

Mongolia this year has entered a period in which it must make significant bond repayments.

A swap agreement between the central banks of China and Mongolia was scheduled to end in 2020. In August, the two parties came to an agreement that the swap agreement, based on a Chinese yuan renminbi (CNY) 15bn ($2.2bn) loan, would be extended to 2023.

On November 25, Mongolia’s parliament and the All-China People's Congress convened digitally. Mongolian lawmakers requested that, given the coronavirus crisis, the Chinese cancel or reduce debt owed by Mongolia under the swap agreement. Mongolia has paid a total of CNY4.4bn in interest to China on the debt and it is expected to pay CNY594mn in interest in 2021.

As of November 25, Fenwei Energy's Mongolian washed coking coal price index rose 20 yuan to 1,080 yuan per tonne from a week earlier. The price of raw coal rose by 20 yuan to 880 yuan.

Bloomberg reported: “There is also a shortage of coking coal in China. Leading companies in Shanxi Province, China's leading coking coal producer, have raised the price of low-sulfur coking coal by CNY 70-100 per ton, SXCoal reported. Strict regulations on the safety of coal mines in Shanxi Province will be implemented from December 1. As a result, there are fears that supply may decline in the near future.”

Australian coal ban maintained

China is sticking to its ban on importing Australian coking coal, with the political rows between Beijing and Canberra unresolved. Chinese buyers now very much rely on US and Canadian supplies, but the supplies are limited compared to what Australia used to provide.

Given vulnerabilities in the coal supply chain, China has the incentive to keep the flow of transportations of available coal into the country as smooth as possible. Mongolia needs to address its worsening coronavirus difficulties as promptly and efficiently as it can to ensure that the economy does not pay an unnecessary price.

Teck Resources looks to boost shipments of steelmaking coal to China next year, Chief Executive Don Lindsay said on Tuesday, hoping to take advantage of unofficial curbs on Australian imports that have stranded dozens of shipments.

China has unofficially banned Australian coal imports since October amid souring relations between the two countries, and in turn, increased imports from Mongolia and Russia.

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With somewhere between 75 and 80 cargoes of Australian coal waiting to discharge at Chinese ports, the restrictions have hit prices for Australian coking coal while driving prices higher for their Chinese equivalent, Lindsay said.

“So if you are a producer of non-Australian coal and you are able to free up tonnes from other customers and contractual commitments, you can do quite well by selling to China,” he said at a webcast Scotiabank mining conference.

Last week, Teck said it was restructuring its sales book to target 2021 sales of coking coal to China of about 7.5 million tonnes.

The miner said fourth-quarter sales to China remained within guidance of 5.8-6.2 Mt, with about 20% of these sales now to Chinese customers.

Separately, Lindsay reiterated that Teck would consider offloading its 21.3% stake in Suncor Energy’s Fort Hills oil sands project in the Canadian province of Alberta but said there were no immediate plans to sell it.

(By Jeff Lewis; Editing by Richard Chang)

(CNN)Inside a gray warehouse at the Shenzhen International Airport in southern China, a row of white chambers sits in a cordoned-off corner, each fitted with a display screen showing the customized temperature inside.

A security worker in face mask, surgical gown and rubber gloves stands guard. Anyone entering this part of the warehouse has to either complete two weeks of quarantine or wear a head-to-toe hazmat suit.

These climate-controlled rooms, totaling an area of 350 square meters (3,767 square feet), are soon to be filled by rows and rows of Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccines -- after they receive approval from the country's drug regulators. From there, they'll be loaded onto temperature-controlled compartments of cargo jets and flown to continents around the world.

In the coming months, China will be sending hundreds of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines to countries that have conducted last-stage trials for its leading candidates. Chinese leaders have also promised a growing list of developing countries priority access to its successful vaccines.

This global campaign presents China an opportunity to repair its image, which was damaged for its initial mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak -- rather than being blamed for the primary spread of the virus it can potentially be esteemed for helping to bring an end to the pandemic.

The vaccines can also be used by Beijing as "an instrument for foreign policy to promote soft power and project international influence," said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Earlier in the pandemic, China's efforts to curry favor by donating masks and other supplies to countries hit hard by the virus were tarnished by reports of poor quality supplies, and accusations that Beijing was launching a disinformation campaign to change the coronavirus narrative.

Beijing's vaccine diplomacy, Huang said, could give it another chance.

"Vaccine Diplomacy"

China currently has five coronavirus candidates from four companies which have reached phase 3 clinical trials, the last and most important step of testing before regulatory approval is sought.

Having largely eliminated the coronavirus inside its borders, Chinese drugmakers had to look abroad for places to test the efficacy of their vaccines. Together, they have rolled out phase 3 trials in at least 16 countries.

In exchange, many of the host countries have been promised early access to the successful vaccines -- and in some cases, the technology know-how to manufacture them locally.

Sinovac Biotech, a Nasdaq-listed drugmaker based in Beijing, has signed deals to provide 46 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Brazil and 50 million doses to Turkey. It'll also supply 40 million doses of vaccine bulk -- the vaccine concentrate before it is divided into little vials -- to Indonesia for local production.

CanSino Biologics, which developed a coronavirus vaccine with a research unit of the Chinese military, will deliver 35 million doses of its vaccine to Mexico, one of the five host countries of its trials.

China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of state-owned pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), has been less open about its deals. The company's two vaccine candidates are undergoing phase 3 trials in 10 countries, mostly in the Middle East and South America. In the United Arab Emirates, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum volunteered to be vaccinated in trials and the vaccine was approved for emergency use. The Emirati company in partnership with Sinopharm hopes to produce between 75 and 100 million doses next year.

Sinopharm chairman Liu Jingzhen said last month that dozens of countries have requested to buy the company's vaccines. He did not name the countries or elaborate on the amount of doses they proposed, but he said CNBG was capable of producing more than one billion doses in 2021.

"China not only has the political will (for its vaccine diplomacy), it also has the robust capacity to make that happen," Huang said.

Because China has largely contained the virus, there's no urgent need to vaccinate every one of its 1.4 billion population. "That gives it this leverage ... to make deals with countries in need of the vaccines," he said.

"Health Silk Road"

China's global vaccine campaign is in stark contrast to the Trump administration's "America first" approach, which focuses on vaccinating its own citizens before those elsewhere.

"So far we haven't heard the US saying or suggesting they're gonna earmark a percentage of their vaccine to support poor countries. So that puts China in an even better situation to use the vaccine to serve its foreign policy objective," Huang said.

In October, China joined a World Health Organization-backed global initiative to ensure the rapid and equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to rich and poor countries alike.

The project, known as COVAX, is designed to discourage governments from hoarding coronavirus vaccines and instead focus on vaccinating high-risk groups in every country. But it was shunned by the United States, partly because President Donald Trump did not want to work with the WHO, leaving a global public health leadership vacuum for China to fill.

From early on, Chinese leaders have repeatedly stressed that China's vaccines are for sharing, especially with the developing world.

In May, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the WHO's annual assembly that China would make its coronavirus vaccine a "global public good," calling it the country's "contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries."

In a video summit with African leaders in June, Xi pledged that "once the development and deployment of a Covid-19 vaccine is completed in China, African countries will be among the first to benefit."

In August, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing would also give priority access to Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Other countries that have been promised priority access by Chinese officials include Afghanistan and Malaysia.

Many of these countries are also in Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, a multibillion dollar infrastructure and trade program that has lost some of its steam during the pandemic. Recently, Chinese officials have ramped up talks of a "Health Silk Road." At the WHO meeting in May, Xi pledged to donate $2 billion over two years to help countries cope with the pandemic. Beijing has also offered a $1 billion loan to Latin America and the Caribbean for access to its coronavirus vaccines.

But there are signs that China's vaccine diplomacy won't always be a smooth ride. In Brazil, Sinovac's vaccine, CoronaVac, has been embroiled in a political feud between President Jair Bolsonaro -- known for his stauch anti-China stance -- and the governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, who is expected to run against Bolsonaro in the country's next presidential elections in 2022. In Bangladesh, Sinovac's trial has been stalled due to a funding dispute.

International public health experts have also questioned China's emergency use program, which inoculated nearly one million Chinese people with experimental vaccines before their safety had been fully proven by clinical trials.

Then there's the question of efficacy. Last month, Pfizer and Moderna announced that early results showed their vaccines to be over 90% effective, while another candidate produced jointly by Oxford University and AstraZeneca had an average efficacy of 70%. So far, none of the Chinese vaccine candidates have announced any preliminary efficacy results, though company executives have repeatedly stressed their safety, insisting no serious adverse effect has been observed in vaccinated volunteers.

Cold storage

Compared with Pfizer and Moderna, Chinese vaccines have a crucial advantage -- most of them do not require freezing temperatures for storage, making transport and distribution much easier, especially in developing countries that lack cold storage capacities.

Kate O'Brien, director of the WHO's immunization and vaccines department, likens the development of vaccines to building a base camp at Everest. "But the climb to the peak is really about delivering the vaccines," she said at a news conference this month.

Both Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines use pieces of genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) to prompt the body to make synthetic pieces of the coronavirus and stimulate an immune response -- a new technology that has not been used in existing vaccines.

But mRNA is vulnerable to degradation at room temperature. Moderna's vaccine has to be stored at -20 degree Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit), or at refrigerator temperatures for up to 30 days, while the Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at an ultra-cold temperature of -75˚C (-103˚F), and used within five days once refrigerated at higher temperatures.

Here's a look at how the different coronavirus vaccines work

Here's a look at how the different coronavirus vaccines work

Sinopharm and Sinovac, meanwhile, use an old-fashioned approach that has long been proven effective in other vaccines, such as polio and flu shots. Their coronavirus vaccines employ an inactivated whole virus to prompt the body to develop immunity, and only need to be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2˚C to 8˚C (36˚F to 46˚F). CanSino's vaccine, which uses a common cold virus called adenovirus 5 to carry genetic fragments of coronavirus into the body, can also be kept at 2˚C to 8˚C.

Still, the required temperatures must be maintained throughout transport, from leaving the production facility to airport storage and finally to global distribution.

Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, will help with the distribution of the Chinese vaccines as soon as they're given the go ahead. It says its end-to-end climate controlled infrastructure is in place and ready.

The company has partnered with Shenzhen Baoan International Airport, which recently received the certification for pharmaceutical logistics from the International Air Transport Association. A cold-chain warehouse was built in 2019 for frozen foods and goods. Earlier this year, it was converted to store coronavirus testing kits -- and now vaccines. The airport said on its website that it wants to make Shenzhen a "Covid-19 vaccine global delivery base."

Cainiao is also in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, which will be sending the Chinese vaccines to the Middle East and then Africa. Since the pandemic, the airline has flown more than 3,000 tons of medical supplies from Shenzhen to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America.

But Cainiao is also looking to add more routes for greater global reach, according to its CEO Wan Lin.

"Of course, we are not still quite sure about the exact demand on that but we are definitely building our capability to be prepared for that," Wan said.

China successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon’s surface late on Tuesday in the first mission to retrieve lunar surface samples in 40 years, said the country’s National Space Administration.

The space agency said the probe had successfully landed on the near side of the moon and sent back images.

US-Russia crew back to Earth in first post-lockdown space mission

China launched its Chang’e-5 probe which is not manned from the southern province of Hainan on November 24. The mission, named after the mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, aims to collect lunar material to help scientists learn more about the moon’s origins and the solar system more generally.

Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tweeted that the landing was a “historic step” adding that it would also benefit “international cooperation and the peaceful use of space.”

The mission will attempt to collect two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) of samples in an area that has yet to be explored on an enormous lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of Storms” and if completed as planned, would make China the third nation to have retrieved lunar samples after the United States and Russia.

The lander vehicle is expected to start drilling into the ground with a robotic arm to collect the lunar material in about two days, according to state media.

The samples will then be lifted into orbit and transferred to a return capsule for the return to Earth, where it is expected to land on land in China’s Inner Mongolia region.

If the mission succeeds it will be the first time scientists have secured samples of lunar rocks since Russia (then the Soviet Union) brought material back in the 1970s.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and made its first lunar landing 10 years later. In January last year, the Chang’e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon, the first space probe from any nation to do so and in July it launched a spacecraft to Mars to search for water.

Rio Tinto will be forced to endure an independent review of its failure to meet cost and schedule guidance on Mongolia's Oyu Tolgoi copper project, after the mining giant's less powerful partners in the project united in an extraordinary show of defiance.

The Government of Mongolia and representatives of Canadian company Turquoise Hill Resources worked together on Monday evening to ensure an independent review would be conducted into the blow outs, which will see Rio's most important growth project delivered almost two years late and close to $US1.5 billion over budget.

Multiple sources have suggested that Rio was opposed to the creation of the committee and the independent review, although at the time of publication Rio had not responded to enquiries.

Rio blamed an uncontrollable factor - weaker than expected geology in the underground section of the Oyu Tolgoi project - when it disclosed the blow outs to investors in 2019.

But Rio has been less forthcoming about the degree to which controllable factors played a role in the blow outs; something the Mongolian Government is particularly keen to investigate.

The commissioning of the review is a victory for the Mongolian Government and minority investors in Turquoise Hill, both of which have struggled over the past decade to contend with the powerful hand that Rio has held in the complicated ownership structure of Oyu Tolgoi.

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The unlikely alliance between the Mongolian Government and Turquoise Hill also highlights the risks inherent in Rio's 2012 strategy to acquire majority, but not complete, control of Turquoise Hill.

The theatre for Monday's extraordinary show of defiance was a board meeting of the Mongolian company that directly owns 100 per cent of the mine; Oyu Tolgoi LLC.

That Mongolian company is 66 per cent owned by Turquoise Hill and 34 per cent owned by a Mongolian Government company called EOT.

Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques struck the 2015 Oyu Tolgoi expansion agreement with the previous Mongolian government.

Rio's exposure to the mine comes through its 50.79 per cent stake in Turquoise Hill; a stake that has given Rio firm control of the mine over the past eight years despite having no direct ownership of Oyu Tolgoi LLC.

Rio's power has been enhanced by the fact it is the main financier and technical manager of the mine expansion project, which is set to cost close to $US6.8 billion and is partly funded by a loan from the Australian Government's export credit agency.

The traditional factional alliance within the project - where Rio and Turquoise Hill appointees to the board of Oyu Tolgoi LLC vote together on motions - was broken on Monday night, when directors representing Turquoise Hill and the Mongolian government voted together on a motion to create a ''special committee'' that would oversee an independent review of the blow outs.

Rio has been further disempowered by the fact it will not have majority control of the four person special committee; two committee members will be nominated by the Mongolian government while two will be provided by Turquoise Hill.

The Mongolian government issued a statement saying independent experts would probe Rio's handling of the mine expansion.

''The special committee has been charged with selecting and engaging an independent and reputable firm of experts in the field of project management, mine planning, cost management and other related fields,'' said the Mongolian government in a statement.

''The expert(s) will be tasked with conducting an independent investigation aimed at identifying the causes of the cost overruns and schedule delays and producing a detailed report to be shared with the special committee as soon as possible, and in any event, within 6 months of commencing its investigation.''

'Fully supportive'

A spokesman for Turquoise Hill (TRQ) confirmed to The Australian Financial Review that its representatives on the board of Oyu Tolgoi LLC had voted in favour of the review.

“TRQ fully supports our government partner, EOT, in securing an independent and objective review of the cost overruns and delays announced last year. TRQ’s nominees will serve on the special committee and TRQ is fully supportive of the review process,'' said the spokesman.

Rio Tinto has built the Oyu Tolgoi operation in the vast expanse of Mongolia's South Gobi Desert.

''We believe the independent special committee established in EOT's resolution is consistent with corporate governance best practices, ensures accountability and transparency and will ultimately serve the best interests of Oyu Tolgoi’s owners – EOT and TRQ – as well as our respective stakeholders.”

Turquoise Hill's willingness to demand an independent review of Rio's failings shows the growing distance between the Canadian company and its biggest shareholder.

Turquoise Hill and Rio have clashed over the past month over the best way to source funds to cover the blow outs, with Turquoise Hill keen to use debt.

But Rio has sought to block the use of extra debt, telling Turquoise Hill it must instead conduct a multi-billion dollar equity raising.

Minority shareholders in Turquoise Hill fear that Rio is seeking to cheaply grow its stake in Turquoise Hill through such an equity raising, based on the expectation that Rio would underwrite any shortfall created by minority Turquoise Hill shareholders who do not participate in the raising.

Legal threats

Those fears were articulated on Tuesday by the second biggest shareholder in Turquoise Hill, Pentwater Capital Management, which threatened Rio with legal action if it forced Turquoise Hill into a dilutive equity raising.

Departing Rio chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques is often held accountable for the myriad challenges at Oyu Tolgoi, given he was in charge of Rio's copper division when the project was revived in 2015.

But while Mr Jacques was intimately involved in the project and the $US4.4 billion finance facility that has funded the expansion, many of Rio's problems lie in the complicated ownership structure created when Rio's former chief executive Tom Albanese and former chairman Jan du Plessis moved to acquire 50.79 per cent of Turquoise Hill in 2012 rather than 100 per cent.

While that 50.70 per cent stake gave Rio control at the lowest immediate cost, it also consigned Rio to dealing with a group of noisy minority shareholders in Turquoise Hill, who have frequently drawn attention to what they believe are corporate governance failures created by Rio's grip on the company.

The decision to not acquire 100 per cent of Turquoise Hill also left Rio vulnerable to the sort of cross-bench coalition that occurred at Monday's meeting of the Oyu Tolgoi LLC board.

The Mongolian government's insistence on owning an equity stake in the mine is also unusual by international standards, and has created headaches for Rio.

Unable to fund its share of construction costs, the Mongolian government has relied upon Rio to cover its share of costs, under an arrangement that is effectively creating a debt that will be repaid by the government through dividends from the mine once it is built and operating.

Rio might find it more expensive to raise debt for its Mongolian copper mine after the Asian nation was "grey listed" by developed economies.

Responsibility for a portion of the construction costs has made the Mongolian government extremely sensitive and suspicious about any cost blowout on the project, hence this week's request for an independent review.

Mr Jacques openly noted during his time as Rio chief executive that the ownership structure of Oyu Tolgoi was not ideal, and the Mongolian government flagged in 2019 that it would consider swapping its 34 per cent equity stake in the mine for a special royalty.

Such a scenario would give Rio direct and enhanced control over the mine and ensure the developing nation gets a share of the mine's wealth sooner, but one year after the idea was publicly floated, a deal has proved elusive.

Mongolia registered 10 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 801, the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Tuesday.

The latest confirmed cases were locally transmitted, said the NCCD in a statement. A total of 369 such cases have been reported so far across the country.

Domestically transmitted cases have been reported in the capital city of Ulan Bator and provinces of Selenge, Darkhan-Uul, Govisumber, Orkhon, Dornogovi and Arkhangai.

The first locally transmitted case 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 a 21-day mandatory isolation on Nov. 6.

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

On Sunday, the Mongolian government decided to extend the lockdown in Ulan Bator and the provinces of Selenge and Arkhangai by 10 days until Dec. 11.

The Asian country has recorded 358 recoveries, with no deaths so far. Enditem

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On November 30, President of Mongolia Battulga Khaltmaa held a meeting with officials from British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca via teleconference to exchange information on supplying coronavirus vaccine being developed by the company to Mongolia.

The AZD1222 coronavirus vaccine, under development by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, has shown 70 percent efficacy, as reported by the pharmaceutical company on November 23.

At the outset of the meeting, President Battulga commended the AstraZeneca for exerting great efforts in developing and supplying the vaccine that is crucial in the fight against COVID-19 global pandemic. He then noted that since more than half of Mongolia’s population lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, posing an increased risk of spreading the virus, it is important to vaccinate the entire population within a short period of time when it becomes available.

The President expressed his eagerness to first purchase COVID-19 vaccines being developed by the company as soon as they start producing.

In turn, the AstraZeneca company expressed their delight with the fact that President of Mongolia is himself attaching significance to this issue, and also pledged to cooperate with Mongolia and include Mongolia among the first countries to receive vaccine shipments when they start selling.

At the meeting, President Battulga informed that he will be giving directions to the Government and the State Emergency Commission of Mongolia to ensure preparation for purchasing the AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On November 30, Oyu Tolgoi Board of Directors resolved to establish a special committee to study the reasons behind the cost overrun and delay in the development of Oyu Tolgoi underground mine, and draw conclusion, according to the press release posted by the cabinet secretariat on its website.

The special committee will be made up of 4 members, including two members nominated from the Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC and two members nominated by the Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd.

The committee will have key responsibilities to select and appoint external experts to review the reasons why costs for the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine development have increased and the development is running behind its schedule, and submit their own proposals based on the experts’ final conclusion for the Oyu Tolgoi Board’s discussions.

The experts’ conclusion on relevant matters, including but not limited to, project management, mine design and cost control, is expected to be made within a maximum of 6 months.

“In spite of the original estimates of USD 5.3 billion capital for the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine development, Rio Tinto announced on November 16, 2019, that development capital spend for the project was increased by USD 1.2 billion to USD 1.9 billion, and the estimated date of the first sustainable production was postponed by 16-20 months than initially planned” the press release reads.

“Around 80 percent of the total reserves of the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposits is to be extracted from the underground and once the underground mine starts producing, Oyu Tolgoi is expected to become the world’s third-largest copper producer. Oyu Tolgoi is jointly owned by Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC on behalf of the Government of Mongolia (34 percent) and Canadian-based Turquoise Hill Resources (66 percent), listed on the Toronto and New York Stock exchanges. Rio Tinto has a 50.8 percent controlling stake in Turquoise Hill and manages Oyu Tolgoi on behalf of the partnership. As a manager and mine operator of the Oyu Tolgoi project, Oyu Tolgoi LLC conducts management of the mine’s activities on a day-to-day basis.”

Concerning the decision, head of the Cabinet Secretariat and Minister of Mongolia L.Oyun-Erdene shared his views by saying “It is of significance that Oyu Tolgoi’s Board of Directors is taking a certain measure to hold examination by external experts on the reasons behind the more than 30-percent growth than originally planned in the investment costs for the Oyu Tolgoi’s underground development and around two-year of delay in its expected completion date. I am delighted to see that the Board has not relaxed its control over the company’s operations, and principles of good governance are in place.”

“While we assure of our support to the decision made by the Oyu Tolgoi Board of Directors, we are convinced that making clear of causes of the investment cost increase in the underground mine development through the experts’ conclusion will serve the interest of the Oyu Tolgoi LLC and all of its stakeholders, and will help to maintain longstanding operations of the company, ensuring its effectiveness for a prolonged period of time.

The Government of Mongolia fully supports the Oyu Tolgoi’s underground mine development and is confident that the time will shortly arrive when the world-class underground mine is put into production, contributing accordingly to the economic and social development of Mongolia” says Oyun-Erdene.