A joint venture between Erdenes Mongol and RosTec, both State-owned companies, will be formed to exploit the Asgat silver deposit, EM Executive Director O.Sainbuyan has revealed. The licences of the strategic deposit are owned by MongolRosTsvetmet, a Russian-Mongolian joint venture, which decided that a joint company, 51 per cent owned by Mongolia and 49 per cent by Russia, was needed to exploit the reserves.
Work on feasibility studies and finding ways of financing the project will commence after the establishment of the new company. The reserves of Asgat have been estimated at 7,300 tonnes.