“We have a cash machine,” the chief executive officer said Thursday in an interview on Bloomberg TV. The “strong quality of the asset portfolio will generate cash no matter where we are in the cycle.”

The world’s second-largest miner had been on a roll this year, with a strong first half anchored by surging prices for iron ore more than offsetting operational setbacks at its top-earning business. But prices for the key steelmaking ingredient have tumbled this month, and taken Rio with it. The London-based company’s shares have fallen 12% since July 30.

Another looming hurdle for Rio has been slowing growth in China, by far the world’s biggest steel producer. Jacques tried to ease those concerns by saying that the Asian nation would use stimulus spending to maintain steel production, including by rebuilding older cities.

“One thing that maybe people don’t see clearly is China is launching, or is going to launch, a program to renew the cities, the buildings that were constructed 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago,” Jacques said. “We fully acknowledge that China is slowing down, but as expected China is managing the slowdown pretty well.”

(By Matt Townsend, Joe Deaux and Jonathan Ferro, with assistance from Thomas Biesheuvel)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement they detained about 680 people who were working illegally at the plants. They said they also seized business records as part of a federal criminal investigation.

Some of those detained will be released for “humanitarian reasons” and required to appear in U.S. immigration court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi, which partnered with ICE, said in a statement. Others will be transported to an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, it said.

A video released by ICE showed buses arriving at a Canton, Mississippi, processing facility where agents searched workers and checked their identification documents. Some workers had their hands restrained with nylon ties, the video showed.

ICE did not specify the nationalities of the workers arrested. The Mexican Consulate said it was traveling to the area to assist its nationals who might have been involved.

Past large operations to enforce immigration laws at workplaces have included the arrest in 2008 of more than 300 workers at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa.

During the administration of former President Barack Obama, ICE prioritized the arrests of recent border crossers, people who had previously been ordered deported and those seen as a threat to public safety.

President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his presidency, however, and ICE has stepped up its activities considerably since he took office in January 2017.

ICE said it has made more than 2,300 criminal and administrative arrests related to workplaces in the 2018 fiscal year, which ended in September, compared to just over 300 in the previous year.

Among the facilities targeted in Wednesday’s operation was a Peco Foods processing plant in Canton. On its website, Peco Foods says it is the 8th largest poultry producer in the United States.

Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, an industry group, said meat processing companies do their best to hire legal workers.

“The chicken industry uses every tool in the tool box to ensure a legal workforce,” Super said.

Reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Mica Rosenberg in New York; additional reporting by Thomas Polansek in Chicago and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall

- The Cabinet decided to allocate MNT 100 million from the Government Reserve Fund for the medical expenses of Firefighter of the Emergency Department of Orkhon aimag E.Unenbat, who lost his ability to work due to the severe burns he sustained while fighting a forest fire in Inget soum of Bulgan aimag in April 2018.

- The Cabinet decided to grant MNT 100 million to the spouse and child of patrol officer, senior sergeant of the Police Department of Bayan-Ulgii aimag I.Erdeneshagai, who died in the line of duty, in support of accommodation expenses. The deceased lost his life while trying to rescue a person from drowning in the Khovd River on February 2, 2019.

- The Cabinet decided to sponsor an event themed ‘Artists - Across the State Border’ by the Boundless Chant NGO from the Government Reserve Fund to pass down Mongolians' time-honored way of thinking and ability to withstand.

- The Governor of the capital city and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar was assigned to comprehensively deal with the land and infrastructure issues concerning the state budget-funded educational, cultural, scientific, and sports projects as early as possible.

- This year, 93 kindergartens, 48 schools and extensions will be inaugurated, increasing school capacities by 21,420 seats and kindergarten capacities by 13,140 beds.

- Minister Yo.Baatarbileg was tasked with cost estimate of demolition of the Natural History Museum and construction hoarding, and finding the financing source for these measures.

- A decision was made to do a study on taking a land under the state special use for construction of the National Arts Theater Complex.

- The Cabinet passed the ‘Procedures for amassment and allocation of funds in the Auto Road Fund’ and ‘ Allocation percentage from gasoline and diesel fuel tax revenues to the Auto Road Fund’ as appendices. The Auto Road Fund will receive MNT 18 thousand from the gasoline or diesel fuel tax revenues generated on a per ton basis.

The agreement, first expected to close in May 2018, but delayed multiple times, also cancels mutual lawsuits, including the government’s environmental claims against Centerra and its subsidiary.

In return, the company has allocated more than $10 million in additional contributions above those required in the strategic settlement to “strengthen its social license to operate.”

The Toronto-based miner has also promised at least $16 million in exploration expenditures at the Kumtor project over a two-year period.

Centerra said it’s now working on cancelling remaining legal proceedings affecting the project, including international proceedings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration as well as certain civil proceedings.

A second completion date, when arbitration and civil proceedings are terminated, is expected to occur in the third quarter of this year. By then, Centerra’s Kyrgyz subsidiary, Kumtor Gold Company, would make payments required under the strategic agreement, including to the Kyrgyz Republic Nature Development Fund and Cancer Care Support Fund.

Kumtor, which lies near the Chinese border at an altitude of 4,000 metres, has produced around 11 million ounces of gold since inception and remaining reserves are pegged at 5.6 million ounces.

The Kyrgyz government owns just under a third of Kumtor and the mine contributes nearly 10% of the country’s GDP.

"The biennial China-Mongolia expo is the largest event to sell Mongolian products," said Yadamsuren Erdenesaikhan, head of the department of small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperative policy implementation at the Mongolian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.

Scheduled to be held in September in Hohhot, the capital of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and in the cities of Tongliao and Ulanqab in the region, this year's expo will be organized under core programs of the exhibition, covering cultural exchanges, conferences and investment, the official said.

"Mongolian wool and cashmere products and organic meat and processed meat products are most in demand among Chinese consumers. In addition, Chinese consumers, especially citizens of Inner Mongolia, are very interested in traditional Mongolian clothes," he said, adding that the Mongolian companies are preparing to display quality products that meet the needs of Chinese customers.

Mongolia and China have set a 10-billion-U.S.-dollar target for bilateral trade by 2020, he said, expressing hope that the expo will play a major role in achieving the target.

More than 380 Mongolian businesses participated in the second China-Mongolia expo held in Hohhot in 2017, exhibiting products in around 400 categories, according to data from the department of foreign trade and economic cooperation at the Mongolian Foreign Ministry.

Mongolia is one of the destinations of newly-confirmed US Defence Secretary Mark Esper’s visit to the Asia Pacific region. During his visit, he will hold a meeting with Mongolian Minister of Defence N.Enkhbold and pay a courtesy call on President Kh.Battulga. The same day, Russian Deputy Minister of Defence A.V.Fomin will meet with Mongolian Deputy Minister of Defence T.Dulamdorj.

The new stadium is planned to be constructed either in the southeast of the Nisekh-Yarmag traffic circle in Khan-Uul district or around the Mongol Naadam complex in Khui Doloon Khudag, Songinokhairkhan district and commissioned by the 2021 Naadam festival, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the People’s Revolution.

Head of the Cabinet Secretariat L.Oyun-Erdene is leading the working group in charge of both the project development and its budget.

The museum, housed in a humble wooden house has been closed for two years by order of General Agency for Specialized Investigation. After 16 years since it has first repaired, the museum is now under reconstruction.

The museum is now owned by P.Genden’s grandson S.Bekhbat. According to him, the museum is to increase the number of its exhibits from 160 to 200.

G.Tserendulam was only nine years old when P.Genden was dismissed as PM in 1936, after rejecting Stalin’s demands to disband the Buddhist clergy and give Moscow more control. P.Genden’s family was exiled to the Soviet Union, where they were held for over a year near the Black Sea. G.Tserendulam last saw her father one day in 1937, when police whisked him away after lunch – later they executed him. But it wasn’t until 54 years later that she actually received confirmation of his execution via a letter from Mikhail Gorbachev in 1992. The number of people killed in the Mongolian purges is usually estimated to have been between 22,000 and 35,000 people, or about three to four percent of the country’s population at that time. Nearly 18,000 victims were Buddhist lamas.