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The mining sector is a major contributor to the Mongolian economy, accounting for about 17 percent of GDP, 65 percent of industrial value added, and 58 percent of export earnings. The formal mining sector employs over 12,000 people and the informal (artisanal) mining sector involves many times this number.
Over the past five years, there has been a rapid rise in mineral exploration, mostly due to the 1997 Minerals Law, the abolition of a 10 percent gold tax, and the widely publicized discovery of the Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold deposit in 2001.The mining industry’s output is largely based on copper and gold. Mongolia has only one copper mine (Erdenet), which earns about half of all foreign exchange and provides almost 25 percent of government revenues. Gold production comes mainly from placer operations (shallow alluvial concentrations of gold).
In the past decade, the Government of Mongolia has evolved from being predominantly the owner and operator of mines to being a manager and regulator. This transformation required setting in place a legal framework adequate to guarantee an environmentally sustainable growth of the sector.
The report
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presents an overview of the current environmental and social practices of the mining sector in Mongolia, including artisanal mining;
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reviews the current environmental, social, regulatory, and institutional frameworks and suggests options for improvement;and
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proposes short-term strategic priorities for a more efficient, environmentally friendly use of mining resources.
The report, launched in May, 2006, was based on extensive fieldwork in 2003 and research in 2005, complementing the source-of-growth study on Mongolia Mining Sector: Managing the Future, available below.
 Read the full report (pdf format, 2.47MB)
Also read:
Mongolia Mining Sector: Managing the Future
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