It is possible to charge your EV in 10 minutes, researchers say www.mining.com

A team of scientists at Penn State University in Pennsylvania have developed a method through which lithium-ion batteries can heat up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and then rapidly cool down to ambient temperatures, allowing them to charge in that short time.

The Hu rocks in Orlando www.news.mn

Mongolian sensation, The Hu – expert hybridizers of traditional Mongolian music with Western rock sounds – are in the midst of a 50+ concert U.S. tour that has them on a collision course with Orlando in early November. The band, which has created “Hunnu Rock” have lined up a total of 53 gigs, which will got underway in Minneapolis on September 11 and is due to wrap up in Vegas on December 7.

Don Bosco Center holds annual event harvesting 1,600 kg of squash and other vegetables www.missionnewswire.org

Salesian missionaries in Darkhan, Mongolia, operate the Don Bosco Center, which includes agriculture education and a working farm. The center offers a chance for local youth to gain the skills needed for employment. The yield from the farm also supports the feeding program at the local Salesian Youth Center. Because of this, each year the farm holds an “agro-oratory” harvest event.

Despite the challenges of agriculture brought on by extreme temperature fluctuations between seasons, rising from +40° C in summer to -40° C in winter, the Don Bosco Center farm is important to the local community. This year Salesian missionaries, lay staff, and 40 children and older youth from the Salesian Youth Center came together to work on the farm. A total of 1,600 kg of squash and other varieties of vegetables were harvested.

“Each year the harvest brings a great source of pride to the community and enables youth to have some practical hands-on experience on the farm,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian missionaries in Mongolia continue to create programs that assist those in need. From teaching job skills and providing shelters for street children to building full-time youth centers with feeding programs, missionaries are providing for those most in need and helping poor families break the cycle of poverty.”

Since 2001, Salesian missionaries have been providing shelter and education to poor youth in Mongolia. Salesian programs aid students who are having difficulty coping in traditional high school settings and families who are arriving in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar in desperate need of employment. In addition to basic educational courses, missionaries offer auto mechanics, welding and computer classes. In 2003, responding to the growing needs in the community, Salesian missionaries added the Caring Center for street children and the Don Bosco Industrial Training Skills Center. In 2004, the Don Bosco Center and farm, along with the Salesian Youth Center, were formed in Darkhan.

Close to 28 percent of the population in Mongolia is living at or below the poverty line with a significant jump to 35 percent for those living in rural areas. Herders in the countryside struggle to survive as their traditional livelihood dissolves, and there are few job opportunities for young generations. Prior to 1990, the country received nearly 30 percent of its gross domestic product from the former Soviet Union and had a centrally planned economy with the government providing basic goods and a full range of public services. As a result, poverty in the country was very low even in rural areas.

According to the World Bank, the poverty rate jumped to nearly 60 percent after 1990, which was directly linked to the country’s transition to a market economy after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Mongolia’s centrally planned economy. Today, in part due to Mongolia’s vast mineral resources and mining, the country’s economy is rebounding and the poverty rate is in decline, having decreased from 38.7 percent in 2010 to where it stands today.

Cratering demand signals more trouble in coal country www.mining.com

The shift from coal to cheaper and cleaner fuel sources like natural gas and renewables claimed another victim in the US last week.

Peabody Energy said it will close its Wildcat Hills coal mine and nearby Willow Lake processing facility in southern Illinois before year-end due to “uneconomic mining conditions.”

The announcement — which affects 225 workers — followed news in September that Peabody ended cash tender offers to buy back debt, due to poor market conditions. In June, the pure-play coal company signed a deal with Arch Coal to combine the companies’ assets in the Powder River basin and Colorado into a joint venture to save costs and strengthen their competitiveness against natural gas and renewables.

More cutbacks and layoffs are likely, particularly in the Powder River basin of Wyoming and Montana. “We expect that at least a few Powder River basin mines will close in the early 2020s,” Moody’s Investor Services commented in an Oct. 16 research note.

Peabody’s troubles certainly didn’t begin this year. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2016, and billions of dollars in debt were scrubbed from its balance sheet before it came out of court protection in 2017. Three other big U.S. coal producers also filed for bankruptcy between 2015 and 2016 — Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Patriot Coal.

The wave of Chapter 11 filings seems to be picking up as coal consumption falls, and coal-fired power plants go offline.

Five coal companies have filed for bankruptcy already this year (Blackhawk Mining, Blackjewel, Cambrian Holding Co., Cloud Peak Energy and New Trinity Coal), while Mission Coal and Westmoreland Coal went bust in October 2018.

In August, Moody’s forecast profitability in the coal sector will worsen over the next 12 to 18 months. “A confluence of economic, environmental and social factors also increase our concerns about the industry’s longer-term demand prospects, as pressure on the industry is mounting, which makes numerous coal mines uneconomic in a reduced demand environment, especially smaller, higher-cost mines that are highly vulnerable to retirement of specific coal-fired power plants.”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) notes that coal’s share of electricity generation in the U.S. was just 28% last year, down from 48% in 2008, and forecasts it will average 25% this year and 22% in 2020.

The “closures of coal-fired power plants already announced, plus other likely closures such as power plants more than 50 years old, would reduce coal to as little as 11% of total U.S. power generation by 2030,” Moody’s predicted in July. “This drop would represent a substantial reduction from today’s mid-20% contribution to power generation, and the continuation of an ongoing secular decline in thermal coal demand.”

Power companies in the U.S. retired more than 546 coal-fired power units between 2010 and the first quarter of 2019, or 102 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity, and another 17 GW of coal-fired capacity is expected to be retired by 2025, EIA states. Last year plant owners retired more than 13 GW of coal-fired generation capacity — “the second-highest annual total for U.S. coal retirements in EIA’s data set.” The largest number — 15 GW — was retired in 2015.

U.S. coal consumption has fallen nearly 42% since its peak in 2005, and in 2018 fell to 687 million tons (623 million tonnes) — the fifth straight annual decline, and the lowest level since the 1970s, the EIA says.

Increased competition from natural gas (now the second-largest energy source consumed in the U.S.) and renewables (whose consumption has nearly tripled since 1950) is putting the squeeze on coal.

In April, U.S. electricity generation from renewable sources (23%) exceeded coal (20%) for the first time, according to EIA’s stats. The agency defines renewables as hydropower, wind, solar and geothermal.

While cost competitiveness has played a role in the move away from coal, so too have green-energy mandates and stronger environmental regulations, and a mounting aversion in the financial and debt markets to invest in the commodity.

At least 19 major insurers — mainly in Europe — have divested from coal, and the combined assets covered by divestment policies rose from $4 trillion in 2017 to more than $6 trillion in 2018, or from 13% to 20% of the insurance industry’s global assets, according to a report in December 2018 by the Unfriend Coal network. The group — a global coalition of non-governmental organizations including Greenpeace, Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Group — is pressuring insurance companies to get out of the coal business.

In July, Chubb became the first major insurance company in the U.S. to stop underwriting the construction and operation of new coal-fired power plants, and said it wouldn’t sell new policies to corporations where more than 30% of revenues come from mining thermal coal.

It won’t be the last.

(This article first appeared in The Northern Miner)

Private entities raise concern over business environment www.zgm.mn

Mongolian economic forum 2019 under the theme National In­terest kicked off on october 30, at the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI). The annual forum aimed to build consensus for defining sustainable economic development policies and addressing challenges key sectors of Mongolia are facing, among poli­cymakers, the business community, academia, and civil society. This is the first economic forum held during the time that the 2020 State Budget is being discussed. President of MNCCI, Amartu­vshin otgondavaa said in his open­ing speech “This year, the Mon­golian economic forum is being organized by private sectors under the theme of National Interest. Al­though the economy is growing, poverty remains high and many social issues have not been resolved.”The forum was co­organized by non­governmental organizations working to protects businesses and their interests, namely, MNC­CI, Mongolian economic forum (Mef) Ngo, Mongolian Business Council, Ceo Club, without any government involvement. “Business owners gathered here to discuss what they are facing and to make recommendations to government and policymakers. There­fore, panelists of today’s forum do not have high positions, but just business owners who express their concerns on behalf of civil society,” highlighted one of the panelists According to the National Sta­tistical office, only about 50 per­cent of the total registered 180,000 enterprises are currently operating.

Mongolia arrests 800 Chinese citizens in cybercrime probe www.reuters.com

ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) - Police in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar have apprehended 800 Chinese citizens and confiscated hundreds of computers and mobile phone SIM cards as part of an investigation into a cybercrime ring, local security authorities said.

Mongolia approves national program to improve living quality of seniors www.xinhuanet.com

The Mongolian government has approved a national program to promote the development and protection of seniors, the government's press office said Thursday.

Mongolia’s flag on the high seas www.news.mn

Mongolia is land-locked country, nevertheless, it has its own maritime law. Under the international rights of landlocked countries to fly their own flag on the high seas, Mongolia has been operating an open ship registry in Singapore since 2003.

Partnership of MIAT and Korean Air brought to new level www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. MIAT Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air, flag carriers of Mongolia and South Korea established a memorandum of understanding with the purpose of air transport development, flight network expansion and promotion of competitiveness within the framework of the air communications agreement between the Government of Mongolia and the Republic of Korea signed last January. Executive Director of MIAT D.Battur and Co-Rep Director and Vice President of the Korean Air Lines Co Ltd Kee-Hong Woo signed the document.

Ministers meet representatives of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Minister of Construction and Urban Development Kh.Badelkhan on October 28 met with a delegation led by Konstantin Limitovskiy, Senior Advisor to the President and Chief Programming Officer at Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).