Work on laying the tracks of Australia-listed Aspire Mining’s 547-km-long Erdenet-Ovoot railway formally began on 20 June. The project has been entrusted to Northern Railways LLC, a subsidiary of the company, and is expected to be ready for traffic in 2022. When complete, the railway will go up to the Russian border at Arts Suuri, where it will be connected to the Russian Trans Siberian Railway through Kyzyl city’s port, and thus become part of the Russia-Mongolia-China Economic Corridor.
Aspire and China Gezhouba Group (CGGC), a subsidiary of the State-owned China Energy Engineering Corporation, agreed at the beginning of June to cooperate in the project. CGGC will help Northern Railways raise money for the railway from the market and also provide help in issues technical.
Northern Railways is also collaborating with China Railway 20 Bureau Group (CR20GC), a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation, and China Railway First Survey & Design Institute on preparing the feasibility study.
Aspire’s Managing Director, David Paull, has noted that CGGC has wide experience in raising funds for large projects, and the willingness of CR20BGC and CGGC to get involved indicates the regional strategic importance of the Northern Rail Corridor.
Aspire Mining owns the Ovoot mine with 255 million tonnes of quality coking coal reserves in Khuvsgul aimag. It plans to start production in 2022, with an annual capacity of 5 million tonnes.