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Source: Pearly Jacob Date: 1 September, 2010
Processed yak wool could be the next big Mongolian fiber export item after cashmere, if a planned pilot project to export some to France this year yields encouraging results. Combed from the shaggy beasts that dot the remote ranges of the Khangai mountains in Arkhangai province, 190 kilograms of washed and de-haired wool await the final freight clearance to Europe. Each processed kilo will fetch 38 Euro, and the entire money will go directly back to the cooperative of herders that collected the wool.
 The man behind the project, Cedric Bussac, a Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) sales and marketing advisor, is thrilled with the volume of the processed wool in hand. “Raw yak wool once processed usually has a yield of only 20-25% but we managed a record 34.1%,” he reveals. The high output was a clear indication that time and money invested in quality control training had paid off.
Yak and Calf: A young calf experiments with summer's new grass next to its mother in Jargalant sum. (Photo by: Pearly Jacob)
It was in mid-May that a group of 15 herders and their families huddled together in a ger in a remote part of Tariat soum, a small district on the western edge of Arkhangai. Outside, one could still feel the clammy breath of winter that had decimated 8.1 million animals across the country in what Mongolians call a dzud, a parched summer followed by a bitter winter. Remnants of a recent snow storm outlined the ridges of the surrounding mountains like chalk on bare rock while a feeble green crept across the valley floor still littered with carcasses, latest casualties of a summer come too late.
Back in the ger, members of the recently formed cooperative stoically shared stories of their loss. “We asked a Shaman to sacrifice a yak for warm weather to come quickly, but it hasn’t worked so far,” said one of the herders with a hint of wry humor. In this valley 95 families had lost more than 80% of their yak herds and significant proportions of goats.
But any sign of desperation was hidden as young and old launched enthusiastically into answering a questionnaire for the theoretical yak wool combing training they had gathered for - the yaks themselves still too weak to be combed. Despite the resilient cheerfulness, the prospect looked grim with the winter losses. However, by July, 1.7 tons of raw hand-combed yak wool had been collected from co-operative members scattered across the province.
The cooperative Ar Arvijin Delgerekh was formed in early 2010 as an offshoot project of Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontieres (AVSF), a French NGO working in the areas of animal care, local veterinary training and rural development. Looking for ways to diversify herders’ income sources and reduce their reliance on breeding goats for cashmere, the NGO was seeking markets for yak wool procured from local herders. Familiar with their work, Cedric had then initiated a project plan to establish a fair trade channel for direct export of processed wool to France.
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Source: Bloomberg.com Date: 1 September, 2010
Mongolian Mining Corp. is believed to have received approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a USD1-billion initial public offering, the first by a Mongolian company in the territory. Mongolian Mining, formerly known as Energy Resources, plans to list as much as 25 percent of its freely traded shares after the initial sale, said people in the know, who declined to be identified because the information is not yet public.
No companies based in Mongolia are currently listed in Hong Kong. Mongolian Mining’s shares may begin trading in early October. New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are the bookrunners for the IPO, according to the people.
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Source: Undesnii Shuudan Date: 1 September, 2010
At the request of the Government of Mongolia, the South Korean Government has sent an expert team here to assess the damage to the environment from mining and to establish an information database. The team has been very impressed by its visit to the reclamation program of Boroo Gold LLC in Selenge province and has indicated this could well be a model for such work elsewhere in the country.
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Source: Bloomberg.com Date: 1 September, 2010
Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, will give priority to boosting output by expanding its own operations rather than through acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese has said. “I’d like to see higher copper production, that’s why we are investing with” Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. in the Oyu Tolgoi project, Mr. Albanese said in an interview in Brisbane. “We have other projects around the world. If managers can develop an attractive investment proposition to expand in this market, we’ll certainly look at it. Our first priority is organic growth.”
Growth plans at Rio, BHP Billiton Ltd. and rivals may help to boost industry spending worldwide next year to a record USD113 billion, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said last month. Mr. Albanese has pledged to increase spending by 50 percent next year to USD13 billion as he expands coal, copper and iron ore output to meet rebounding global growth.
“I’ve just been through post-earnings meetings with a range of shareholders around the world and I think they recognize the strength of those organic growth opportunities,” he said. “They want to know details of what those are, but there is certainly recognition of the importance of focusing on organic growth.”
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Source: The Wall Street Journal Asia Date: 1 September, 2010
China Shenhua Energy Co., the country's largest listed coal producer by output, has said it faces uncertainties during the second half of this year, as China's economic growth is likely to decelerate. "It is expected that major coal-consuming industries will still post growth in the second half of the year," the company said in a prepared statement. "However, given the impact of factors such as China's macro adjustment and control, energy-saving and emission reduction policies, as well as the relatively higher base in the second half of last year, there will be a slowdown in the growth rate as compared with that in the first half of the year."
Shenhua also said growth in coal demand is expected to decline compared with the year's first half. The Beijing-based company, which also operates railways, ports and power plants, said coal output rose 3.2% to 109.2 million metric tons, accounting for 48% of the company's full-year production target of 229 million tons. Coal sales rose 12% to 137.4 million tons, and the average selling price of the company's coal increased 8.4%.
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Source: Commodities Now Date: 1 September, 2010
Stewart Group, the international inspection, analysis and assay group has expanded its operations in Mongolia. A new fire assay laboratory, with state-of-the-art equipment, has been added to the Stewart Mongolia LLC facility in Ulaanbaatar, which can now provide a significantly broader range of services to the key mining regions in the country. The expansion is the second major development at the Mongolia facility in 12 months, after it became the first internationally owned laboratory in the country to achieve ISO/IEC 17025:2009 accreditation.
In addition to analysis of gold, silver and platinum group metals, the Mongolian site can conduct multi-elemental analysis, coal and solid fuel analysis, trace element analysis by ICPAES, and sample preparation of solid fuel and geochemical materials.
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Source: Undesnii Shuudan Date: 1 september, 2010
Prime Minister S.Batbold announced after watching the exploration work of the 100% Chinese company Donshen in the Gobi that Mongolia’s first oil refinery will be ready by 2014. Donshen has a product sharing agreement with the Government and hopes to begin oil extraction before the end of this year. Exploration results so far indicate there is enough oil for the fields to be operated for 30 years.
The oil refinery is planned to be built in the Sainshand industrial complex and 10 companies have already expressed their interest in taking up the work. The Prime Minister said Mongolia has enough oil reserves to be self-sufficient and once refineries start processing the crude for domestic use, the country will leave behind its traditional 100% dependence on import.
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Source: Zuunii Medee, Ardiin Erkh Date: 1 September, 2010
The Mongolian Stock Exchange (MSE) celebrated on August 27 the 15th anniversary of the country’s first bond sales. Executive Director R.Sodkhuu congratulated all individuals and institutions that have participated in and contributed to the growth of the capital market and recalled the early days of the transition from a planned to a market economy. There were only two brokers in the stock exchange then, while today Mongolia has busy and thriving primary and secondary markets. Things are moving fast, he said, as shown by the fact that the capital market, valued at MNT88 billions in 2008, is now worth MNT944 billion.
Speaking at the same ceremony, Mr. S.Davaasambuu, an advisor at MSE, said 15 years ago most Mongolians considered a share certificate as just a piece of paper not worth a second look. Things have certainly changed since then, but many more public companies, with shares held by the people, have to come up to provide the platform for the country’s economic diversity. The capital markets will be the catalyst in this, Mr. Davaasambuu said, if the Prime Minister’s plans are to be fulfilled.
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