Australia to Help Mongolia Expand Latter’s Mining Boom
Casting off concerns it will be helping a direct competitor, Australia has vowed it will assist Mongolia to achieve and expand its very own mining boom.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who is currently in Mongolia, met with Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj on Wednesday and discussed, among others, the need for a bilateral cooperation between the two countries' mining sector, especially since there are 54 Australian companies already operating in Mongolia.
Mr Carr, in an interview with ABC News' Tony Jones, assuaged concerns Mongolia will kill off Australia from the world map as stronghold of iron ore and coal producer.
"Whatever we do, (whether we help them or not), they're going to have a mining boom anyway. They've got a very strong mining sector," Mr Carr said.
"What Australia is doing here is that we're giving them sound advice on sustainability, on environmental management, on occupational health and safety. And it's a form of aid that's deeply appreciated and renders Australia very relevant in this relatively small, but potentially very rich landlocked country. They're learning from how we've got mining so right. And they appreciate the fact that Australia can give advice," the Australian foreign minister added.
Mongolia has massive reserves of untapped natural resources. Their copper reserves reportedly beat Chile's, their oil deposits are similar to Angola, and their coal deposits belittle Australia's. But despite this, the country had consistently been challenged on how to go about exploring and exporting its major resources.
Of particular concern is Mongolia's very strategic location - that of being neighbour to China, which happens to be the prime fuel that catapulted Australia's mining boom and its economic growth.
But Mr Carr stressed China's slowing down and eventual waning appetite had long been foreseen.
"We have anticipated a falling off in prices reflecting not only the cyclical downturn in China, but a cyclical downturn against a backdrop of a restructuring of the Chinese economy, that is, less emphasis on major traditional industrialisation and the working out of a different economic model," he said.
"We're not reliant on an endless Chinese boom of the type we've seen over the last few years. But nonetheless, the Chinese story of urbanisation is going to continue. They are a long way short of South Korean or Japanese levels of urbanisation. And while they're attracting another 400 million people to their cities, they're going to be demanding the Australian raw materials that put up those residential towers and lay down those tollways and those rail systems."
Mr Carr likewise pointed out that at present, Mongolia's biggest mine, the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, is owned by Rio Tinto, an Australian miner.
As of July 2012, Rio Tinto has achieved 94 per cent construction completion of the open pit mine. With a 60-year expected mine life, it is scheduled to be commercially operational in mid-2013. It will have an expected 100,000 tonnes of ore yield daily.