Minister of Mining reports

Economy | Mining
en_khuder@montsame.mn
2015-12-18 12:49:40

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ In scope of the legal reforms of the mining sector, parliament has adopted draft amendments to the laws on minerals, on nuclear energy, on the budget and on the Human Development Fund (HDF), said R.Jigjid, the Minister of Mining at the “Hour of Minister” weekly meeting on Thursday.

Parliament has passed draft laws on a rule of maintaining the law on prohibiting mineral exploration and exploitation near water sources, protected areas with water and forests, and on ratifying the 176th Convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on mining safety and hygiene, he went on.

As amending the law on minerals, the special license of mineral has been issued from January 26 of this year on 31 million hectares (19.9% of the country’s territory) located by the government, the Minister said.

A total of 48 mines and concentrating factories were commissioned in 2015. Having received investments of MNT 1.3 trillion, the new mines and factories created almost 6,000 jobs, he said.

The Oyu Tolgoi project will receive loans of 4.4 billion US dollars from 15 banking and financial organizations after the signing of the finance agreement the Oyu Tolgoi’s undergraound mine on December 16 of 2015, he added.

The Minister also said measures have launched for supporting the gold exploitation and purchase in current times of economic difficulties, a size of gold purchased by the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) has sharply increased thanks to setting a payment for mineral resources exploitation at 2.5%. By November of this year, the BoM bought 13.9 tons of gold, the volume is likely to reach 20 tons after the financial support for gold explorers, he hoped.

As of present, Mongolia imports 94% of petroleum from Russia, two percent--from China and South Korea each, and the rest--from Lithuania and Singapore. If to classify the types, 54 percent of the products are diesel fuel, 36%--automobile petroleum, nine percent--gas and black oil, and one percent--airplane fuel, the Minister said.

He also reported that the excise tax on oil products has been imposed upon localities differently, by a governmental resolution.