Mine says important progress made at Town-Hall last Friday
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (ot.mn) Last week, Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia visited the Oyu Tolgoi mine site which recently passed 70 per cent completion of the construction phase and met with management of the mine. Mongolian President witnessed first-hand the enormous progress at the mine site and had meeting with residents of Khanbogd soum, a village near the mine site. Oyu Tolgoi said that discussions with the people of Khanbodg and the President of Mongolia last week were very constructive.
Oyu Tolgoi is not yet ready for mining as it has only been in construction for a little over 18 months. Despite this, Oyu Tolgoi implemented many projects to develop the Khanbogd soum.
Oyu Tolgoi employs 879 workers from the town, and has spent 16.5 billion tugrigs for works implemented in Khanbogd soum from 2009-2012 on the township. The mine has donated two generators, maintenance expertise and diesel fuel to power the town, amounting to an investment of 1.2bn MNT – very few soums in Mongolia have access to free energy. As well as this, Oyu Tolgoi has:
- Constructed a Vocational Training Center, which is due to open in April 2012, with an investment of nearly 2bn MNT. The vocational training centre will accommodate 150 students, and as well as training future workers of Mongolia it will help the local economy.
- Built the town’s first dental clinic for 76 million tugrig investment, which has served over 80 per cent of the population of Khanbodg.
- Contributed 40 per cent of the cost of the construction of a new wing on the local school and kindergarten at a cost of 272,000,000 MNT.
- Invested 1.7bn MNT in finding more water sources so the town has access to greater supplies of drinking water. This will continue in 2012 and the water sources will be connected to the soum centre.
“We thank the people of Khanbodg for their comments. It’s important to remember that while Oyu Tolgoi was discovered in 2001, the mine has only been in construction for a little over 18 months”, said Bayarsaihan Tumurdavaa, Vice President, Regional Development and Social Performance.
“Mongolia will eventually get around 58% of the mine profit. Oyu Tolgoi mine will contribute significantly to the people of Mongolia and especially will boost living standard of people of Khanbodg. Therefore, we are focusing on getting the mine ‘up and running’ in planned time.”
“We want our employees to be able to live with their families as much as they do, we want Khanbodg to be a thriving town, and we will be working with government to achieve this.
“The Oyu Tolgoi Board is supportive of developing a concept to improve the lifestyles of Mongolian employees and to further foster regional development in the south Gobi in cooperation with local and national government.
“It is important to develop a concept that is supported by government at the national and regional level. Oyu Tolgoi needs to garner support and to discuss financing and the respective accountabilities of the different parties who will ultimately contribute to making this a success.
“Funding commitments will be required from Oyu Tolgoi LLC shareholders and these will need to be supported by co-commitments from government. Oyu Tolgoi LLC management is expediting the process so as to gain the necessary support and financial commitments from all those involved”, he said.
“I want to emphasize that, for a mine that is not yet even in operation, we have spent 30bn MNT on regional development in the South Gobi” said Bayarsaikhan Tumurdavaa.
About Oyu Tolgoi LLC (www.ot.mn)
Oyu Tolgoi LLC is Mongolia's largest copper and gold mining company and is a strategic partnership between the Government of Mongolia (34 per cent stake), Ivanhoe Mines (66 per cent) and Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto is the major shareholder in Ivanhoe Mines and the manager of the Oyu Tolgoi project. In addition to dividends from its 34 per cent stake in Oyu Tolgoi, the Government of Mongolia will receive taxes and royalties.
Oyu Tolgoi, located in the Gobi desert in southern Mongolia, will be one of the largest and highest-grade copper and gold mines in the world. It is the largest project ever developed in Mongolia, requiring a capital investment for phase 1 of more than US$6 billion.
Oyu Tolgoi is committed to contributing to a sustainable future for Mongolia. At least 9 out of 10 employees will be Mongolian once the mine is in production and Oyu Tolgoi is investing US$58 million dollars (78 billion tugriks) in training and education and an additional US$27 million dollars (36 billion tugriks) in the Workforce Employment Project designed to help address the general skills shortage in Mongolia
Oyu Tolgoi's key priorities are the health and safety of employees, best-practice environmental management, contributing to sustainable communities and always doing business with integrity, for the benefit of all the project's shareholders and the people of Mongolia.
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