The Oyu Tolgoi mine is safe, secure and operating normally
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (ot.mn) – Cameron McRae, the President and CEO of Oyu Tolgoi LLC, flew to the Oyu Tolgoi mine site on Wednesday to be briefed on the company’s response to two recent incidents. This morning managers at Oyu Tolgoi spoke to staff to ensure they were fully briefed on both events.
The first incident was on Thursday, 17 November. A female employee of a contracting company was grabbed by a man in a restroom on the site. She was not injured. Oyu Tolgoi is cooperating with authorities to identify her attacker and bring charges.
On Saturday, 19 November a young Mongolian man, an employee of French contracting company CIS, was found dead on site, away from operations, and a police investigation is currently underway.
There have been no other incidents.
“Firstly I would like to say the thoughts and sympathies of everyone at Oyu Tolgoi are with the family of the young man at this time:” said McRae. “We are here for them and Oyu Tolgoi will provide any support the family need. They have visited the site in line with tradition. Due to the police investigation, we are unable to comment further on the death at site at the moment.
“I would ask the public to be patient and to let the police do their job.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to reassure Oyu Tolgoi employees and their families that the mine site is safe and these unfortunate incidents are rare. The employees’ safety is absolutely paramount and we have over 200 security personnel from Mongolian companies on site to ensure the safety of the 11,000 employees.
“As we stated on Wednesday, we have 34 employees from our contracting company who are on compassionate leave at the moment. Their duties are being undertaken by other workers on rotation. The original 34 will be back at work soon and are certainly not on strike. Their jobs are safe.
“Oyu Tolgoi is a safe, secure project that is operating normally”, he concluded.
About Oyu Tolgoi LLC
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 one 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 MNT) in training and education and an additional US$27 million dollars (36 billion MNT) 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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