Source: Austrade            Date: 24 February, 2011

Austrade's Mongolian Mining Projects Report 2011 was launched on Monday at the Mongolia Australia Business Forum in Sydney, in the presence of visiting Prime Minister S. Batbold, and an accompanying business delegation. Welcoming the report that outlines promising investment opportunities for Australian mining companies in Mongolia, Trade Minister Craig Emerson said, "Australia and Mongolia are natural partners in minerals development and there are real opportunities in Mongolia for Australian mining companies."

Dr. Emerson called the report “a useful resource for Australian mining companies wanting to understand more about Mongolia's mineral resources, its system of mining regulation and the broader market for resources in North Asia, including rare earths". Mongolia's mining sector has some of the world's richest deposits of gold and copper, uranium, coal, fluorspar and rare earths such as tantalum, niobium, yttrium and zircon.

Mining accounts for the majority of Mongolia's exports and its industry has benefited in recent years from increased foreign investment and the application of foreign technical expertise to new mines. "Australia's long-standing expertise in mining and mining services continues to offer Mongolia the opportunity to use the best technologies in the world to manage their mining operations," Dr. Emerson said.