The company made its first gold sales starting on 23 April. Gold and silver is being produced and sold every 14 days. To date, Steppe has now sold a total of 15,389 oz gold and 4,978 oz silver in six separate deliveries. This has generated net cash flow, after royalty payments, of USD 25.3 million. Average achieved gold price for the sales to date is USD 1,725/oz.

As of 30 June, Steppe Gold has mined, crushed and stacked approximately 715,000 tonnes of ore onto Cell 1 where leaching continues. A further 160,000 tonnes of ore has been delivered to the ROM pad and is being crushed and stacked. Stacking of ore at Cell 2 has already commenced and leaching will begin in July.

Regular grade reconciliations continue to show strong outperformance to the published resource estimate with average grades of 2 g/t gold and some evidence of higher grade zones. Daily mining of ore continues from the ATO1 open cut with the ATO4 open cut being brought on-line in the coming months. Both the mining and stacking rates are being scaled up.

Despite the COVID-19 travel restrictions and border closing, Steppe Gold is continuing its operations without any material changes affecting the company. The company remains on track to produce approximately 60,000 oz gold in its first year of production at cash costs of circa USD 500/oz from the ATO mine.

With strong cash generation from the ATO mine, the company is now working on expanding the open pit and processing facilities to increase gold production to a targeted 150,000 oz gold per annum.

Exploration drilling continues at ATO1, ATO4 and the Mungu discovery with two rigs. Steppe Gold has also begun exploration at its Uudam Khundii Project with a trenching program underway and followed by an initial drilling program. (resource world)

Elixir managing director Neil Young said the identification of fully gas-saturated coals suggest a “potentially very energy-intensive per acre resource” has been found. The company has also recommenced its field programme at the South Mongolian production sharing contract with the drilling of Nomgon-2 due to start “shortly”.

According to the company, full gas saturation for a CSG play can mean “potentially very positive” consequences including the possibility for pilot production design to be “substantially simpler and cheaper”. In addition, Elixir expects production testing to be characterised by early gas generation as opposed to a lengthy water-producing phase to induce pressure draw-down and gas breakthrough.

The company said water management issues could also become simpler and cheaper in the development phase, thus “significantly improving gas production economics”. “Identifying fully gas-saturated coals in Nomgon-1 is an excellent result, given the very positive consequences this should have for coal seam gas pilot production testing and ultimately, a field development,” Mr Young said.

Depending on the success of its appraisal campaign scheduled for this year, Elixir plans to conduct a pilot production test in 2021.

The second Nomgon well is due to spud shortly and Elixir said it expects the well to produce the “same suite of test results” as Nomgon-1. These results will become progressively available as the well reaches its target depth. Samples will either be analysed on-site or sent to laboratories in Mongolia and China.

Marmots are large ground squirrels, a type of rodent, that have historically been linked to plague outbreaks in the region.

Officials from the Republican Ministry of Agriculture and Food told citizens in the border area not to hunt marmots or eat marmot meat and take preventive measures against insect bites.

The bubonic plague
Rodents are the main vector of plague transmission from animals to humans, but the disease can also be passed on through flea bites.

The plague killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe during the Black Death pandemic in the Middle Ages, but modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death if administered quickly enough.

Bubonic plague, which is one of plague's three forms, causes painful, swollen lymph nodes, as well as fever, chills, and coughing.
Mongolia quarantined its region near the Russian border last week after lab tests showed two cases of bubonic plague linked to consumption of marmot meat, the country's health officials said on July 1.
Mongolia's National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases said last week it had identified and tested 146 people who had come into contact with the two infected people.

The centre also identified 504 people of secondary contact in the Khovd province.
"There are no grounds for serious concern," the Russian Embassy in Mongolia said.
This comes as Mongolian authorities impose travel restrictions and isolate infected individuals, according to Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
The embassy also cited Sergei Diorditsu, a World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Mongolia, who reportedly said the province sees seasonal outbreaks of the plague.
"There are natural foci of plague in Mongolia and the disease is spread by tarbagans (Mongolian marmots)," the embassy said.
"The problem is that local residents who, despite all prohibitions and recommendations of local authorities, continue to hunt them and eat them, as this is a local delicacy."
Authorities in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia have also confirmed a case of the plague.
The case in the city of Bayannur, northwest of Beijing, was confirmed on Tuesday, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
In 2019, a couple in Mongolia died after eating a raw marmot kidney, triggering a quarantine that left several tourists stranded in the region.
Anywhere from 1000 to 2000 people get the plague every year, according to the WHO, but that estimate does not account for unreported cases.

The approved bill amendments lay out updated structure of the government cabinet with a total of 14 ministries, including 6 ministries of general function and 8 sectoral ministries as follows.

Ministries of general function

1. Ministry of Environment and Tourism

2. Ministry of Defense

3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs

4. Ministry of Finance

5. Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs

6. Ministry of Labor and Social Protection

Sectoral ministries

1. Ministry of Construction and Urban Development

2. Ministry of Education and Science

3. Ministry of Road and Transport Development

4. Ministry of Culture

5. Ministry Mining and Heavy Industry

6. Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry

7. Ministry of Energy

8. Ministry of Health

The new cabinet will have 17 members, including Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the Cabinet Secretariat and affiliated ministers.

The former ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports is now separated into two ministries as part of the new cabinet for effective implementation of the state policy in areas of culture, science and education, building of a system for restoration of cultural values and proper management of innovation projects and programs. It also sets out to assign the responsibilities of the sports management and policy to the Sports Committee - government regulatory agency under the Prime Minister taking the demand for promotion of public physical activity and improve population health into consideration.

The accompanying law to the government structure and composition also outlines to have 12 regulatory and 23 implementing agencies within the cabinet. Matters connected to the implementation of measures against the air pollution were included in the responsibilities of the cabinet ministers. The new government is seeking to reduce air pollution by up to 80 percent again as the previous government chaired by Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh managed to accomplish up to 50-percent of drops in air pollution last year.

The bullion reserves stayed unchanged from the end of May, at 62.64 million fine troy ounces. The value of gold holdings rose to $110.76 billion at the end of June from $108.29 billion at the end of May.

The increase in foreign exchange reserves was due to the strengthening of the yuan and the global asset prices rebound.

Foreign inflows into Chinese stocks and bonds have picked up lately as investors bet on an economic rebound. Strict capital controls have also helped China to keep outflows under control over the past year despite the shock from the Covid-19 pandemic, the trade war with the United States, and weakening economic growth.

Statistics showed the yuan rose 0.99 percent against the US dollar in June, while the US dollar fell about 0.97 percent in the same month against a basket of other major currencies.

Shopping often becomes a difficult chore for her as he legs that measure 52.18 inches from hip to heel doesn’t fit the size of regular clothing.

B.Rentsenkhorloo lives in the United States but is originally from Mongolia. She inherited her tall genes from her father and mother who stand at 6 feet 10 inches and 6 feet 1 in inch respectively.

After facing a challenging childhood and teenage years that were often marred by episodes of bullying, she became a model because of her unique height. She now embraces it fully and says being tall is ‘beautiful’.

“When I was younger, I felt so bad because of my height. Some people made me feel uncomfortable, but nowadays it seems like I’m seen more as unique, so that’s why I feel so good. In the last 15 years, I started to like my height and I’m really comfortable with my body and also long legs,” the 29-year-old told Mirror in an interview.

“Many people asked me: ‘are you a model?’ so I feel great when they ask me that. I do modelling part-time, and I just started to work with one brand, which is leggings for tall girls. Being tall is beautiful, and you can look so unique from other people,” she added.

As for the drawbacks of being tall, B.Rentsenkhorloo says she finds difficulties in finding clothes and shoes that fit. Also, she is often required to do some adjusting for small rooms and low doorways.

“The doorways are so short for me. I hate hitting my head on doorways. Finding clothes is really challenging. My shoe size is US 13 and you can’t find any shoes in Asia and even in Mongolia and Korea,” she said.

Ekaterina Lisina from Russia currently holds the Guinness world record for having the world’s longest pair of legs. However, her pins measure almost the same size as B.Rentsenkhorloo.

B.Rentsenkhorloo believes she has the longest pair but has no desire to enter the Guinness World Records.

In June, the BoM branches in Darkhan-Uul and Bayankhongor aimags bought 63.9 kg and 81.9 kg of precious metals respectively. The average price of BoM’s purchase of 1 gram of gold was MNT 156,422.38 in June.

The development of a standard design for the wildlife crossings is currently underway to include it in road and railroad construction projects in the future. As part of the project, Ulaanbaatar Railway JSC issued a temporary regulation and the railway fences that serve the purpose of ensuring railroad transport safety have been opened in three locations with the highest rate of wildlife movement to be assessed for suitability.