G.Iderkhangai
Mining sector people are watching with concern how exploration licences issued by the MRAM are being rejected by the local communities which, by law, have the final say. Until some time ago, about 70 per cent of such allocated licences have failed to get the nod from local communities. As of September 1, there were 1664 exploration licences, including 317 in the gobi region, accounting for 7.7% of the country’s total territory. The number of mining licences stood at 1444, including 455 in the gobi region, covering 0.8% of the total squares in the country. The aimag-wise distribution figures are: Umnugobi, 80 mining and 164 exploration licences; Dornogobi, 158 mining and 192 exploration; Dundgobi 70 mining and 86 exploration; and Gobisumber, 7 mining and 9 exploration.
We give below a selection of what some local government representatives said in answer to questions on the situation on the sidelines of a forum organized by the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative on 10-11 September in Sainshand city in Airag soum in Dornogobi aimag.
“The Government has been arbitrary”
E.Gankhuyag is responsible for mining issues at the Development Policy Section of the Umnugobi aimag administration.How are proposals being reviewed at the local level? What are the major issues you have been considering?Some 20 percent of the total territory of Umnugobi aimag were already under exploration licences when allocation of squares through online application became effective under Resolution 239 of the Government. The exploration licences allocated since then would account for another 20 percent.
It is clear that licences were not issued after proper consultation with the Environment, Green Development and Tourism Ministry, as also with environmental organizations and local communities. Many areas over which licences have been issued in Umnugobi aimag are already marked for inclusion in specially protected areas under the Government’s own environmental complex plan. This is a major anomaly which was very much avoidable if the Government had held proper consultations, and not acted arbitrarily. Its failure to do so is the major reason why 70 percent of the new proposals have been rejected nationwide.
And in Umnugobi aimag itself?It’s even higher, as we have blocked 80 percent of the more than 100 applications sent to us. The Mineral Law has made it mandatory for the opinion of a soum citizens’ council and an aimag Civil Representatives’ Khural (CRK) to be favourable before a final grant of licence. Yes, there is a provision that a refusal has to be based on substantial reasons, but we are sure that the Umnugobi CRK and the working group it set up have worked responsibly and conscientiously.
We first checked which lands now being licensed were actually to go into the specially protected areas. It will be against the environmental complex plan to allow exploration activities in them. Once these were carefully identified by the working groups, we began recording such areas into the specially protected areas, with Noyon soum giving the lead. We studied various laws such as the ones on the administrative and territorial units of Mongolia and their governing bodies, on subsoil, on special protected areas, the Environment Law and the Mineral Law and then the soum’s CRK passed a resolution incorporating certain areas into the protected zones. We forwarded our decision to the MRAM within 10 days and also got it registered by it as demanded by law. This made it doubly sure that the licence could not but be refused.
After having started with the western region, MRAM has now started to allocate licences in the eastern, putting on their website the list of squares open for application. This, too, contains squares which fall in protected areas.
Did you keep all related organizations informed and how did they respond?We have asked the Mining Ministry and other organizations to ensure that henceforth exploration licences are allocated only after proper investigation and consultation, and not in anunorganized manner. Without this, as shown in the western region, the MRAM allocation turns out to be pointless. The possible available areas for allocation must first be listed after talking to local communities and professional organizations, otherwise local communities will keep on refusing ineligible allocations.
What do you make of the fact that only about 200 of the 1700 entities owning mining licences are active?With so many idle entities in the field, we must think again about the need to allocate new licenses. The world is not going to end today, and something has to be left for our future generations. Of course it is also important to ascertain how much resource we actually have, but we can do this better only after sorting out the current mess.
In Umnugobi aimag, there are 164 exploration and 80 mining licences, but only about 10 of them are on stream. How can we convince local citizens that mining is beneficial if miners themselves do not seem to think so? Only a proper policy can produce good results.
The resumption of exploration licence allocation has seen many companies suffering financial loss. Some are even facing bankruptcy. Exploration is expensive in terms of both time and money and also requires competence. Costs have also been going up, and preparing a mineral resources report following successful exploration is serious and difficult work. The experience so far would seem to suggest that instead of having many licence holders with uncertain competence, it is better to have fewer qualified to give better results.