Although any country can have good fortune, it is common to fail in order to succeed. Contrary to this fact, Mongolia has good fortune and proves to be successful. Such a success story began in 2001 when the Oyu Tolgoi deposit was discovered in South Gobi region of Mongolia.
Discovering the ore body is one thing, developing that into a commercial operation is another. A huge foreign investment of 7.8 trillion MNT or 6 billion USD has been put into the development the Oyu Tolgoi mine. We, the Mongolians, have paid not even a penny, we are free from the risks have and have even started to capitalise on the discovered resources. The bulk of the profit will stay here, in Mongolia.
Even though mining has not commenced and production and income generation is still a long way off, Mongolians have already started to benefit from Oyu Tolgoi. The Mongolian Government has already received over 900 billion MNT, in taxes, premiums and fees; over 10,000 Mongolians are employed by the Oyu Tolgoi project and in 2011 alone more than 1,000 national business provided commodities and services to Oyu Tolgoi worth 1.7 trillion MNT.
The total investment amounts to even more: Oyu Tolgoi has invested in the Mongolian workforce providing 110 billion MNT in training programmes aimed at preparing Mongolian workforce, construction of three technical colleges, complete renovation of four VET centers, preparation and training of 3,300 specialised personnel and university scholarships for Mongolians in national and overseas universities. This is just the beginning…
The success story continues: Upon completion, Oyu Tolgoi is expected to become the third largest mine in the world, the government of Mongolia will own up to 70 per cent of the project cash flow and 90 per cent of Oyu Tolgoi workforce will be Mongolian nationals.
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