 The Mongolian government appears
ready to move ahead in finalizing an agreement to mine the vast Oyu
Tolgoi copper and gold site.
During a Wednesday newspaper
interview, Sedbazar Otgonbat, a ministry of industry
and trade adviser, said the
Mongolian Parliament will seek to finalize an agreement this spring.
Through numerous Mongolian
governments, Rio Tinto Group and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, holders of the rights
to mine Oyu Tolgoi, have reached agreements only to have these agreements
left unratified by Parliament.
Past Oyu Tolgoi agreements
became controversial as Parliamentarians criticized the various governments
for not receiving larger profits from the Oyu Tolgoi mining.
The 2007 agreement, which took
five years to negotiate, called for the Mongolian government to receive
an equity stake and tax revenues equal to 55 percent of the project,
according to Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto chief executive officer.
Explorations at the Oyu Tolgoi
site, about 80 km north of Mongolia`s border with China, shows some
of the greatest mineral wealth of any mine in the world. Estimates have
shown 71,000 million pounds of copper and 31.3 million ounces of gold,
to be extracted.
However, delays in past efforts
to reach an agreement have caused Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto officials to
warn they would seek opportunities in other countries if Mongolia could
not, at last, approve an agreement on mining Oyu Tolgoi.
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