Oyu Tolgoi Teaches the Walk of Life

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Bayarmagnai Puntsag
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Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (ot.mn) – NGO “Centre to support wool handicraft” participated in study tour to exchange best practices organized by Gobi Prosperity local business and economy programme of Oyu Tolgoi LLC. Ts.Tsend-Ayush, executive director of the Centre appealed to the local businesses not to see Oyu Tolgoi as money and return the favor.

12 business entrepreneurs participated in Gobi Prosperity programme arrived in South Gobi aimag and visited many local businesses such as “Bokhog” LLC and “Soyolj” center and vegetable growers. NGO “Centre to support wool handicraft” conducted wool and cashmere handicraft training for the programme participants.

“Centre to support wool and handicraft" is an NGO that has 230 cooperatives as members and conducted training for 3000 people in 21 aimags. It has own shop called “White Gold” in Ulaanbaatar. It sells about 800 types of products. It cooperates with Oyu Tolgoi, Mercy Corps and World Vision and teaches herders how to make woolen products.

Tsend-Ayush said during the training “If local residents can use locally available resources and raw materials to make high quality products, there is sufficient market for these products. Therefore, it is important to use this opportunity provided by Oyu Tolgoi to make intellectual investment. This is the real investment. You have to work hard and utilize the opportunity provided by Oyu Tolgoi and pay back for their efforts.

D.Baljinnyam, vegetable grower from Bayan-Ovoo soum said “Oyu Tolgoi opens door for those people who really want to work. We, local residents to have to use this opportunity and contribute to local development. It depends from us.”

About Oyu Tolgoi (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, Ivanhoe Mines 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 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$85 million dollars (110 billion tugriks) in training.

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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