On May 14, Friday, Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene worked at the state-owned enterprise - Erdenet Mining Corporation (EMC) during his working trip to Orkhon aimag.
In the past two years, the Erdenet Mining Corporation has paid a total of MNT 1.9 trillion to both state and local budgets. Operating at the copper and molybdenum deposits in Erdenet since 1978, the Erdenet Mining Corporation has gradually increased its ore exploration capacity to 37 million tons and ore output to 32 million per annum.
During the PM’s visit to the mining factory, EMC General Director Kh.Badamsuren introduced about the technological reforms and current situation of the ore mining and processing. “Despite the lockdown measures and challenging times posed by the pandemic, the mining corporation had been yielding great achievements and exceeding its targets” highlighted the General Director. “In particular,
• output performance targets have been fulfilled with the help of technological improvements at the factories,
• 36.9 tons of ore were explored with total ore output amounting to 32.5 tons in 2020,
• 2020 sales revenue target set at MNT 2.2 trillion was exceeded by 16 percent,
• MNT 1.5 trillion were paid for state revenues in 2020 alone.”
“In addition, the 2021 production surpassed its targets by 100-143 percent by the first quarter of this year, which resulted in 38-percent of growth in sales revenues and 2.5-times of increase in net profit target. By the first three months of 2021, MNT 149 billion has been paid to local and state budgets, and the number is on the rise to MNT 266 billion as of current. Between 2017 and 2020, geological explorations with total cost of USD 29.4 million were performed by the corporation, extending the mine life by approximately by 30 years and making it possible to operate for another up to 70 years.”
Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene expressed gratitude on behalf of the government to the Erdenet Mining Corporation for its contribution to the Mongolian economy. The PM emphasized that the company has developed feasibility studies over the past two years to prove that it holds the capacity to take up the baton for one-tenth of the country’s MNT 10 trillion general budget and its operations can span another 60-70 years.
After noting that the government of Mongolia, on March 6, 2019, announced an emergency regime at the Erdenet Mining Corporation and Mongolrostsvetmet LLC to ensure that no operational interruptions occur and the government announced, on March 21, 2019, that the Erdenet Mining Corporation became fully state-owned enterprise, Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene said that the agenda of his visit to the Erdenet Mining Corporation is to present the government resolution which approves new developments at the mine.
According to PM, the aforementioned government decision was made on the basis of the current possibilities and economic resources of the EMC and the corporation has managed to save MNT 65.8 billion in 2019 and MNT 88 billion in 2020 only from its procurement activities throughout the period of emergency regime since 2019. “After becoming a state-owned company, the EMC for the first time become free from domestic and external debts for the first time in ten years.”
During the visit, the Prime Minister has become acquainted with the project proposal on the Industrial and Technological Park at the Erdenet Mine Corporation, consisting of ore dissolution project, molybdenum ore processing plant, copper smelting and concentrate and green growth center. The project aims to produce value added end products and increase the corporation’s daily sales revenue to MNT 28 billion by 2028.
Total investment funding of MNT 1.8 trillion is required for the Industrial and Technological Park development. The Erdenet Mining Corporation has delivered a proposal, feasibility study and design for the copper smelting and concentrate project to the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry for approval. The copper concentrate will have with annual capacity of 125,000 tons of cathode copper.
After hearing the presentation, the Prime Minister handed over the copy of the government resolution on the establishment of Copper Smelting-Metallurgical Plant and a certificate approving to establish the Industrial and Technological Park.
