The ceremony was attended by national contractors who were crucial for the development of one of the world’s largest and most modern shafts project and other key stakeholders.

In special remarks delivered at the celebration event by Ambassador Batsukh Galsan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Oyu Tolgoi LLC, highlighted the great support provided by the Government of Mongolia for this remarkable achievement, which increases Mongolia’s global competitiveness in terms of the mining and technology development.

Armando Torres, Chief Executive Officer of Oyu Tolgoi LLC said, “Shaft 2 construction – from sinking through to equipping – has taken three years and four months in total. Close to 50 national companies and 2,500 people worked safely on Shaft 2 for approximately 2.6 million hours to complete this critical and complex piece of infrastructure that will accelerate the underground development of our Oyu Tolgoi mine”.

Shaft 2 with a depth of 1,284 metres is the main production shaft and primary access point for people and materials and provides infrastructure for the materials handling system in the underground mine. Its production hoist is the largest Koepe (Friction) rope hoist system in the world with two 60 tonne capacity skips capable of hoisting 28,000 tonnes of ore per day at a maximum speed of 59km/hr.

Shaft 2 can carry 300 people per cage cycle versus a maximum of 60 people per cage cycle through Shaft 1. Shaft 2’s hoist rope-up process took 23 days by a team of approximately 500 people – one of the safest and most efficient rope-ups undertaken anywhere in the world.

Once Shaft 2 is fully commissioned and receives state licensing, it enables the following two important steps forward for the underground mine:

- Additional crews, materials and equipment to be transported and operate underground and,

- More rock to be removed from underground to enable further development and access to the ore body

From this point, the number of people working underground will no longer be constrained by the Service lift capacity of Shaft 1, but rather by volume of air moving through the underground via the existing ventilation (shafts 1, 2 and 5). Additional ventilation capacity is under construction with two more ventilation shafts - shaft 3 (intake) and 4 (exhaust). Currently, 700 people are able to work underground per shift.