www.unuudur.com: The latest news of Mongolia in the World

Mongolian metallurgical coal explorer and infrastructure company Aspire Mining has started the first stage of the rail feasibility study for the Erdenet to Ovoot railway, which is critical to the development of the Ovoot coking coal project.

Dual-listed SouthGobi Resources’ former president and CEO Alexander Molyneux served the Mongolia-focused metallurgical and thermal coal miner with a notice of civil claim, filed in the British Columbia Supreme Court, it said on Thursday.

China’s Go West strategy of encouraging coastal to inland flow of capital and people will result in the formation of a new commodity superhighway, says advisory firm Wood Mackenzie (Woodmac). This new superhighway will impact the energy trade flows within China and externally, through the new Silk Road routes, and will link the country from [...]

Moody’s Investors Service expected iron-ore and metallurgical (met) coal prices to remain under pressure through at least 2016, prompting it to lower its price expectations for both. The firm fingered slower steel output growth in China and rampant oversupply, particularly in iron-ore, for holding prices down for these critical steelmaking ingredients.

The outlook for the North American coal industry had been changed to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report.

TSX-listed Centerra Gold has swung to a fourth-quarter loss, mainly impacted by a significant impairment charge on its Kyrgyz cash generating unit, fewer ounces produced and sold and lower realised gold prices.

Mongolia’s parliament has backed its new prime minister’s plan to resolve a long-running dispute with global miner Rio Tinto this year over plans to expand the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

Global miner Rio Tinto is not interested in a proposal by Mongolia to cut its equity stake in key mines such as Rio’s Oyu Tolgoi in exchange for more royalties, CEO Sam Walsh said on Thursday.

Global credit ratings advisory firm Moody’s Investors Service has changed its outlook on the global base metals industry to negative, citing weakening macroeconomic growth indicators and investor sentiment.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P’s) downgraded its price forecasts for iron-ore and copper owing to slower global growth and said it expects changes to the ratings of related companies in the coming weeks.

Iron-ore dropped to near its lowest level in more than five years, reflecting sustained pressure from a supply glut and slower Chinese steel demand, with banking an financial services group Citigroup seeing further weakness early next year.

Capital misallocation, not a lack of demand, remained the key factor in the current low level of several commodity prices, Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said on Wednesday.

The development of the latest major new underground, mechanised platinum mine, near Mokopane, in Limpopo, has been marred by a “small group” of people instigating animosity towards the emerging operation.

Mining giant Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh has called on the delegates attending the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, to support investment in their various countries by supporting the vision of economic growth and reducing investment risk.

Rio Tinto subsidiary Turquoise Hill Resources this week reported that negotiations to resolve tax issues with the Mongolian government regarding the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold mine could be delayed after Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag was removed when members of Parliament voted to dismiss him earlier this month.

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has echoed Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s views that fossil fuels would remain an integral part of Australia’s energy mix.

A recovery in metallurgical (met) coal prices to between $135 and $145 a metric tonne is unlikely before the second half of 2016, says Moody’s Investors Service.

The shareholders of coal developer Aspire Mining on Monday smiled on the news that the company’s Ovoot project, in Mongolia, had been presented with a rail solution.

A growing oversupply in the iron-ore market was damaging the credit quality of producers and posed risks to the downside, Moody’s Investors Service noted last week in a sector comment; ‘Iron-ore supply increases pose risk to market fundamentals’.

An global copper industry think tank on Tuesday said that the copper market, which had been in a supply deficit for the past five years, would swing to a surplus.

European thermal coal futures dropped below $72/t for the first time since March 2009, on weakening demand from the region’s biggest economy, Germany, and rising output from miners worldwide.

Australian coal exports have risen nearly 12% in the first nine months of 2014 to a record 158-million tonnes, the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) reported on Monday.

Africa-focused project developer Ivanhoe Mines said on Thursday that it does not have enough money to continue development at its two base metals projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), unless it received a significant cash injection before the end of the current quarter.

Tougher Chinese policies aimed at reducing the country’s dependency on coal would help restrain global coal demand growth over the next five years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found in its yearly ‘Medium-Term Coal Market Report’ released in Paris on Monday.

Junior gold developer Viking Ashanti has announced a merger with emerging coal developer Auminco Mines.

The massive Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold mine, in Mongolia, has started to receive payments for copper concentrate shipped to a warehouse in China, but has not yet recorded any revenue owing to Chinese customs approval delays, 66% project owner Turquoise Hill Resources reported on Monday.

Advisory firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) has warned of an increased threat of substitution, saying that single commodity companies are at most risk.

Toronto- and Hong Kong-listed SouthGobi Resources has withdrawn its ‘notice of investment dispute’, which it filed with the Mongolian government in July last year, after it was granted three premining agreements (PMAs).

Canadian miner Turquoise Hill and its majority owner Rio Tinto expect to sign a $4-billion project-financing plan and term sheet at the end of June, which will allow for the necessary future financial flexibility to develop the second phase of the giant Oyu Tolgoi mine, in Mongolia.

Global copper ore treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for annual contracts are likely to rise in 2013 but talks about new year deals are making slow progress, Europe’s biggest copper smelter Aurubis said on Friday.