Earlier this week, Mongolia’s parliament announced that it was permitting the Mongolian government re-open talks with international mining companies about the Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper mine and the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposits.
Potential investors include Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto, claim that an agreement on the Oyu Tolgoi gold mine would increase Mongolia’s GDP by 34%.
One of the largest stumbling blocks to opening these mineral deposits to foreign mining concerns remains the percentage stake of each mine that would remain in Mongolian state hands, and therefore provide future revenues to Mongolian nationals, rather than to overseas mining companies.
One resolution before parliament that is designed to overcome this concern is to increase state ownership to 51% of any mining venture.
Image: Mongolia via Flickr’s Creative Commons
An interesting headline, but not much information. What is touched on is the issue of extraction of natural resources without maximization of economic benefit to the populations living in the areas of extraction. What also has to follow is a system of work/health safety for the workers, as well as the environmental impact of the operations. We have much more work to do globally to ensure corporate responsibility as we work toward researching cleaner fuel technology.