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Aspire Mining puts down more roots in Mongolia with 10-million-tree pledge www.proactiveinvestors.com.au
Aspire Mining Ltd (ASX:AKM) has committed to plant 10 million trees in Mongolia at a recent signing ceremony in the country’s capital.
The resources stock met with the Mongolian President, Prime Minister and Minister for the Environment in Ulaanbaatar, where it pledged to sow the 10 million saplings in Khuvsgul Aimag province in the country's northwest.
Aspire’s pledge forms part of the Mongolian Government’s promise to plant 1 billion trees in Mongolia by 2030, as announced last year.
The mass planting campaign is part of the nation’s efforts to reduce the impact of planet-wide climate change and bolster Mongolia’s contribution to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Government and businesses sow the seeds
Mongolia’s government will spend no less than 1% of its gross domestic product on this green endeavour, planting trees in three stages to 2030.
At a press conference outlining the initiative in October last year, Mongolia’s Minister of Nature, Environment and Tourism, N.Urtnasan, said: “We have set up working groups to launch a national campaign to plant one billion trees and ensure the implementation of it for 10 years.
“As of today, 76.9% of Mongolia's territory is affected by desertification. It is estimated that if the goal of the campaign is achieved, 120 million hectares of highly desertified land will be reduced by 4%, forest cover will be increased by 9% and greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 600,000 tonnes.”
Urtnasan also noted that companies would form a large part of the campaign, with some large, private companies electing to plant between 20 million and 120 million trees over the next decade.
Next steps
Aspire has engaged an agri-scientist to prepare a planting program and establish a tree nursery in the Khuvsgul capital of Murun, with the campaign scaled up to meet the company’s commitment.
Once established, the nursery is expected to be a long-term source of future tree plantings.
Overall, Aspire’s commitment to 10 million tree plantings by 2030 makes up half of the entire planting commitment for the Khuvsgul Airmag province.
It also coincides with the ASX-lister’s own sustainable development program and environmental policies.
Developing coking coal assets
Aspire’s tree planting pledge is on top of the commitments it has made in the environmental management plan for its wholly-owned, world-class Ovoot Coking Coal Project.
Ovoot is one of two coking coal assets that Aspire is developing in northwest Mongolia — the company also owns 90% of the Nuurstei project in the Khuvsgul Aimag province.
At present, the ASX-lister is focused on permitting, engineering and financing the Ovoot Coking Coal Project and transforming it into a producing asset.
The flagship project hosts 255 million tonnes of JORC-compliant coal reserves and could sustain a full-scale production cycle of up to 10 million tonnes of saleable coking coal per annum over a long mine life.
A 2019 pre-feasibility study for the coking coal asset outlined a 4-million-tonne-per-annum, 9.2-year life of mine truck and rail operation at Ovoot.
The project carries a US$586 million net present value at a 10% discount, as well as a 43.7% internal rate of return, and the company is planning for a decision to mine in 2022 once permitting and funding are secured.
Down the line, Aspire intends to mine by open-pit, truck coking coal to a company-owned terminal facility in Erdenet and delivering to customers in China and Russia via the existing Mongolian rail network.
Published Date:2022-04-04
