The Anglo-Australian miner said the movement of goods and people, including overseas contractors and technical experts, had become more difficult in Mongolia and across the Chinese border after the first case of the coronavirus was recorded in the country and the government took action to limit its spread.

As a result, work on a multibillion underground expansion of the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine had been slowed, Rio said.

“This is slowing down construction activity at the underground project,” said Arnaud Soirat, the head of Rio’s copper and diamonds business. “It is too early to determine the impact of this and the team is doing all they can to minimise the disruption in a challenging environment.”

The company said it would update the market once more information was available and that operations in the open pit at Oyu Tolgoi and deliveries to customers in China were continuing as normal.

The underground expansion of Oyu Tolgoi is Rio’s most important growth project and will increase its production of copper at a time when the shift to renewable energy is driving growing demand for the metal for use in electric vehicles and wind turbines.

But the project, aimed at increasing output to more than 500,000 ounces a year, has been dogged by problems.

Last year Rio warned of a 16 to 30-month delay to first production — which is now expected between May 2022 and June 2023 — and a cost blowout of $1.2bn-$1.9bn. The company blamed difficult ground conditions.

Rio expects to complete a new mine design by the end of June and reveal new cost and timing estimates in the second half of the year.

Shares in Rio fell 5.8 per cent to 3,082p, close to a three-year low.

“This is likely to be the first of many changes to the underlying project path, production profile and capex spending across not just Rio Tinto but the entire mining industry,” said Tyler Broda, analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

“Balance sheets in the sector generally remain very strong, but like almost all other industries, the potential for operational stoppages is likely to create a material build of working capital. We see the miners generally being in a strong relative position to cope but clearly these are volatile times and estimates and forecasts are likely to be changing rapidly.”

Canadian group Lundin Mining has announced the suspension of construction at its Neves-Corvo zinc expansion project in Portugal because of travel restrictions related to the coronavirus.

Total expenditure and net lending amounted to MNT 1.5 trillion, resulting in a deficit of MNT 120.0 billion in the equilibrated balance.

In February 2020, the general government budget revenue amounted to MNT 697.0 billion, decreased by MNT 92.6 billion or 11.7%, and total expenditure and net lending amounted to MNT 848.0 billion increased by MNT 253.9 billion or 42.7%, compared to the same period of the previous year.

The General Government budget revenue was composed of tax revenue (85.7%), non-tax revenue (7.8%), future heritage fund (6.2%), and the stabilization fund (0.3%).

In the first two months 2020, tax revenue reached MNT 1.3 trillion, decreased by MNT 76.2 billion or 5.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. This growth was mainly due to decreases of MNT 70.3 billion or 25.8% in value-added taxes, MNT 33.5 billion or 23.6% in other taxes’ revenue and MNT 19.1 billion or 12.8% in the income of particular purposes, while there was an increase by MNT 36.7 billion or 14.0% social security revenue and MNT 0.2 billion or 1.2% in property tax.

In the first two months 2020, 32.2% of the total tax revenue was accumulated from income tax, 23.8% from social security contributions, 16.0% from value-added tax, 10.4% from excise taxes, 9.8% from other taxes and 7.5% from foreign activity revenues.

In the first two months of 2020, general government budget expenditure and net lending increased by MNT337.0 billion or 29.2% compared to the same period of the previous year, totaling up to MNT1.5 trillion by preliminary results. It was primarily affected by an increase of MNT225.1 billion or 20.4% in current expenditure and MNT115.0 billion or 3 times in capital expenditure.

The general government budget expenditure was composed of current expenditure (88.5%) and capital expenditure (11.5%).

Source: National Statistics Office of Mongolia

He said “The novel coronavirus infections have been recorded in 155 countries of the world with over 150 thousand confirmed cases and over 6500 deaths. The World Health Organization announced that Europe has now become the epicenter of the pandemic. The Government of Mongolia and the State Emergency Commission have taken the same measures as all other countries. It is getting more risky for the country to receive flights further. Because there were citizens who shown symptoms of the infection among the evacuees carried on the charter flights from overseas countries and they are held in isolation in the National Center for Communicable Disease. Since repatriation of its citizens repeatedly increases risk, maybe there will be no way other than restricting this movement further. Therefore, we are calling on our citizens to be halted in the countries they are residing or staying and stay healthy in order to ensure security of the country.

Some 800 citizens are returning to their home country on three charter flights. Furthermore, a charter plane has taken off from Japan this morning at 09:00 am and it will land at 20:25 at the Chinggis Khaan International Airport.

Another charter plane of the MIAT Mongolian Airlines is to take off from Istanbul on March 18 to carry citizens who made requests to arrive their home country.

Household spending and purchase state are used to define consumer confidence index. And it becomes significant information on prediction of future economic trend.

“The future expectation index grew up by 10.9 percent from the same period of the previous year. Whereas, index towards current economic state declined this time,” she said.

Consumer Confidence Index measures the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the country's economy and their personal financial situation. And the economy grows when consumer confidence index shows more optimistic results.

Our country has been conducting the survey since 2009.

All international arrivals into Beijing must go into quarantine facilities for 14 days, and those sent to facilities must pay for their stay.

Travellers had previously been allowed to undergo isolation at home.

The number of imported cases in China have outnumbered domestic ones for three straight days.

There were four new local cases reported on Monday, all of which were in Wuhan.

The increase of precious metal purchase was caused by price growth of gold on the world market and that until the adoption of amendments to the related law, 10 percent royalty was imposed in the same period of last year. Moreover, the central bank’s purchase of 1.7 tons of white silver from domestic entities since the arrival of the year also affected to the increase.

Throughout February, the average price for a gram of gold stood at MNT 140.292.94. While the announced rate by the BoM on March 11 was MNT 147,096.92 for a gram of gold and MNT 1,492.43 for a gram of silver respectively.

The Central Bank has been ensuring its preparation to sell one ounce of silver bar, which is made from white silver extracted in Mongolia, as well as 1000 gram of silver bar, gold pellet packed in 4 kg and certified precious metals starting from April by the request of individuals and organizations. It will allow to launch trade of certified precious metal on the domestic market, to use them with the purpose of souvenir and small and medium business runners and craftsmen to craft jewelry items made of white silver whose origin is clear.

As of today, a total of 207 people who had direct contact with the French national have also tested negative. The 59-year-old Frenchman, was confirmed Covid-19 positive on Tuesday 10 March, being the first case in coronavirus-free Mongolia. He is now undergoing treatment at the National Centre for Communicative Diseases.

The French father of two, had been in Mongolia since 2 March, where he had arrived from Moscow on an Aeroflot flight.