N.Ariuntuya finds out from D.Bat-Erdene, advisor to the Minister of Mining, what the Ministry hopes to achieve from the “Minerals Sector – 2025” forum it is holding on January 15.
What prompted the Ministry of Mining to hold the “Minerals Sector – 2025” forum?
We were persuaded by three main factors, one external and two internal. The external oneis the by now well-known fact that certain decisions taken by the former Government and the former Parliament have led to a drastic decrease in foreign investment, even by as much as 50 per cent. This has to be reversed.Of the two internal factors, one is the steady growth in people’s negative perception of the geology and minerals sector. This must change. Lastly, the Ministry is keen on cooperating transparently with professional associations and has already signed agreements to that effect with several ones among them. The forum is a continuation of our effort to interact with professional people and associations and get their views before taking decisions.
We would like to help both foreigners and Mongolians get a positive understanding of the sector in Mongolia. The investment atmosphere is changing and becoming more stable. We wish to let foreign investors know the efforts we are making to improve the legal environment. To our own people, our message is to reassure them that mining doesn’t have to destroy the environment. We want the people to know that this sector plays a pivotal role in the growth of the national economy, offering employment to many and providing business opportunities to individuals and companies. Their mind must be disabused of the notion that mining is just a political game.
Our final goal is to revive foreign and national investors’ faith in our minerals sector so that they return to invest in Mongolia. Of course, just convincing them is not enough, we must see action on the ground. But that would take some time. The immediate priority is to restore confidence.
The draft State Policy in the Minerals Sector is ready. In all my working experience in many ministries I have never seen the involvement of so many professionals in the preparation of a similar policy document. Usually just a few people from a ministry or an agency talk among themselves and produce the draft of a policy, but this one took five months since the first public discussion. Now it is for Parliament to approve the path of development for the minerals sector until 2025.
Many issues have been dealt with extensively in the draft policy document. We tried to include all controversial issues such as strategic deposits, small mineral deposits, geological work, the sector’s relationship to society, etc. So far discussions in Parliament have not proposed any major change. There have been some terminological modifications but the main concepts have remained untouched.
We expect the forum to suggest concrete steps to ensure that henceforth important decisions on the sector are takenafter wide consultations.
Certain thematic discussions are planned before the forum on January 15. What will these be about?
We plan to get to specifics and not just deal with generalities. Let me give you the background.
The minerals sector can be divided into two main categories: geological survey or prospecting and mining. The geological part has been free as a bird for 13 years. Licences were issued freely and unconditionally. Now it’s different. The Government has actually stopped issuing new licences and taking a pause to figure out what to do next. With no new licences, geological survey companies are facing difficult days. We would like to discuss this issue at the forum as well. The Minerals Law of 1997 permitted geological work to be conducted by an individual, and many people did obtain such licences.This provision was later annulledandonly entities were licensed to do the work. The draft policy suggests a further change. Now we want the State to determine the location of the prospecting work.
In mining, each mineral should be discussed separately, as the issues regarding coal, copper and gold may be and often are all different. This we will do, in what we may call sub-discussions. But the overall concerns of the sector in general are very much there to be discussed. These include the quoted market price, taxes, transport, border movement capacity and management. The quoted market price is a special headache for those in the coal, iron and spar business.
We have associations of spar, gold, iron and coal miners. We have talked with them about how to conduct the forum and it has been decided that they will hold their own discussions before January 15, and on that day each will bring its thoughts and ideas to the forum for a general debate under one umbrella.
Will this be a regular and annual event?
Yes. Work on ministry policy is an ongoing process. The first job is to implement the recommendations of the forum. Next year’s forum would assess that work and also evaluate how effective the measures have been. Only regular meetings can do this, changing course if necessary, and keeping everyone on their toes.
All sections of the sector must work together for better implementation of nationally approved policies, dismantling obstacles on the way. As we cooperate, we must remember we are all accountable to one another.
The Ministry is making concrete effortsto meaningfully interact with, as you say, investors, professional associations, civil society, as alsothe general public. What about strengthening cooperation and coordination between Government organisations? The popular impression is that the Ministries of Mining, of Environment and Green Development, of Industry and Agriculture, and of Finance all go their own way. Will the issue of better intra-Government coordination be discussed at the forum?
It is true that professional associations and companies complain about poor coordination between ministries. There are instances of contradictory and conflicting information, advice and rulings as each ministry wants to protect its own turf.For example, the Ministry of Mining may have one opinion about the quoted market price, but the Ministry of Finance may favour a totally different one because its primary goal is to collect more tax. There is nothing wrong in this. It’s the same when the Ministry of Environment wants to enforce the law and is seen as being against the interests of mining development. When there is any such serious conflict it is the usual practice to set up aninter-ministerial committee to seek a fair resolution.
People’s criticism is by and large justified and we accept the need to improve our working, but it will take some time to reach the levelof fairness and efficiency demanded from us. As for us in the Ministry of Mining, we prefer direct and personal discussions to exchanging notes and files.
What kind of attendance and participation do you expect at the forum?
We want to have as many people from as many fields to come as possible, but of course, that won’t be possible. We are trying to get adequate representation from local authorities, professional associations, ministries, companies and civil society.
Civil movements will attend the forum?
The actual amount of land, dirt roads,rubbish dumps, and vegetation destroyed by mining activities is pretty small seen against Mongolia’s size, but people see the destruction as larger because with lots of money involved in it, mining is seen as larger than life.
There are too many civil movements. All of them have a slogan that sounds good, but many have their own interests and agenda. For example, a non-government organization called Oyu Tolgoi Supervision complained that moving the copper from Oyu Tolgoi along unpaved roads was spreading dust particles in the air, making life difficult for local residents. We sent a team to check the situation, and to hear what the local authorities and the herders who lived along the road had to say. The former said the people from the organisation hadnot even talked to them and had “made up a story”. They were also agreed that exports should continue. Some of the herders whom our team met said that only about 20 heavy-load lorries pass on a given day, and “they don’t cause too much trouble for us”. They also denied that any civil movement workers had met them or come to the area, but they had heard over the radio that there are people fighting for their rights.We do have many such civil movements without any contact with the local residents whom they claim to represent.
There was chaos last October because some people from a civil movementused gunsand also placed a bomb outside the Ministry building at a spot where employees went to smoke.It will be hard for us to support those using such extremist methods. Think of the possible damage to life and property if the bomb had gone off. Do we need such civil movements? Mongolia is a democratic country, and has no space for those using bombs to press for their demand.
That is why we need a thorough discussion on civil movements as such. When they demand responsible mining and a responsible State, they must take care their own actions are also responsible. They create a ruckus and then disappear, leaving the local authorities, companies and the State organisations to clean up the mess. Of course there are movements making the right demands the right way. We have to take them with seriousness.