The general air of despondency in the mining sector took a break on 23 January when the Mining Journal Awards 2014 ceremony was held. This was the 5th year of the Awards, and its special, and a very welcome, feature was the inclusion and presence of smaller companies in the whole process, from nomination to announcement. Not unexpectedly, they gave their ger co-actors a run for their money. Another feature to note this year was the rise in the number of processing units that entered the contest and were considered for awards.
As before, the jurors’ panel assessed the performance of contestant companies mainly by comparing their annual report for the relevant period with that of the previous year. This is a fair enough practice and we at the Mongolian Mining Journal do not wish to interfere in the jurors’ independence, but we do feel that some more criteria covering a wider range would be good. We plan to identify such fresh criteria after discussions with experts of the Ministry of Industry.
ErdenesTavanTolgoi JSC was the co-winner in one category (of this, later), and accepting the award, Ya. Batsuuri, Executive Director, noted, “It’s a nice change from getting criticized all the time. It does feel good to get recognition for our hard work.” This is actually the whole point of the awards, to put on record our appreciation for hard work in hard times.
The Mongolian section of the present issue contains much more information on the award winners and other contestant companies, minutes of the jurors’ panel discussions, and the text of all acceptance speeches at the awards ceremony. Here we give a list of the nominations in the various categories, and of the ultimate winners.
Category: Best Deposit
There were three nominees.
1. Uuls Zaamar LLC, which mines gold in Zaamar soum of Tuv aimag, surpassed performance projections in its mining plan by 199.28 per cent in 2014 and paid MNT1.9 million in tax. Most admirable were how it expanded operations at all levels and increased its human resource capacity, improved infrastructure, upgraded technology and invested in the local community.
2. Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi sold 5.6 million tons of coal, 2.8 times more than in 2013, made possible by using up last year’s stock. This year’s output was lower because of cost cutting forced by falling prices.
3. Altan Dornod Mongol LLC operates a placer mine of gold in Zaamar soum of Tuv aimag. It met its production target 100% and increased sales revenue by 60% over that in the previous year. It extracted 1548 kg of gold and paid MNT3.7 billion in tax.
The winner was Altan Dornod, with a score of 32.94, followed by Uuls Zaamar (31.59) and ErdenesTavan Tolgoi (23.14).
Category: Most responsible operations
There were two nominees.
1. Tsagaan Uvuljuu LLC, a subsidiary of Terra Energy LLC, began extraction in the Baruun Noyon Uul coking coal mine in Noyon soum of Umnugobi aimag in 2014 and made notable contributions to sustainable development in the area in the form of investing in social responsibility and increasing employment opportunities.
2. Oyu Tolgoi LLC operated its copper concentration plant at full capacity and processed 27.5 million tons of ore in 2014. It also successfully introduced and followed world class concepts of social responsibility, labour safety and hygiene.
The award went to Oyu Tolgoi, which scored 48.7 points, way ahead of the 16 points earned by Tsagaan Uvuljuu/ Terra Energy. G.Batsukh, head of the OT Board of Directors, said, “We have been under constant criticism, and express our deepest gratitude for today’s fair evaluation of our work.”
Category: Green miner
There were seven nominees, the largest in any category.
1. Mining National Operator LLC conducted technical and biological rehabilitation on 74.3 and 37.3 hectares respectively, and provided local citizens and herders with employment.
2. SouthGobi Sands LLC fulfilled 98.4% of its environment management plan, developed an offset plan on the basis of environmental issues studied by professional organizations, and carried out environmental monitoring.
3. Oyu Tolgoi LLC introduced environment-friendly advanced technologies and environmental accomplishment audit, conducted studies on bio-diversity and the ecosystem, constantly monitored its activities in this area,and implemented offset programmes, a new thing in Mongolia.
4. Altan Dornod Mining Service LLC, which introduced placer mine extraction in winter, altogether spent MNT2 billion on rehabilitation in its Tsagaanchuluun gold mine in Zaamar soum of Tuv aimag, conducting technical and biological rehabilitation on 70 hectares and 50 hectares respectively.
5. Monpolymet Group was responsible for technical rehabilitation on 57.6 hectares, biological rehabilitation on 48.3 hectares, and afforestation on 10.0 hectares at its Toson placer mine in Zaamar soum of Tuv aimag and at Buregkhangai soum in Bulgan aimag. It also planted 5,500 trees.
6. Boroo Gold LLC achieved complete rehabilitation of 429.7 hectares before handing the area over to the local administration in 2014. Some 30 hectares of this was rehabilitated in 2014.
7. Altan Dornod Mongolia LLC carried out technical and biological rehabilitation on 168 hectares and 66.3 hectares respectively at Ar Namgan, Tsagaanchuluut, Khailaast and Bayangoliin Denj in Zaamar soum of Tuv aimag, at a cost of MNT3 billion. Around 80 hectares of the technologically rehabilitated land and 16 hectares of the biologically rehabilitated field had been abandoned and ruined land. In addition, the company refilled 18 million cubic metres of land.
It was a very close race, with Monpolymet (91 points) barely edging out Oyu Tolgoi (90.7 points). SouthGobi Sands (76.5 points) was next.
Category: Best use of technology
There were three nominees.
1. Beren Metal LLC became the first to deep-process iron ore and to produce cast iron in Mongolia in its plant in Bayan-Undur soum of Orkhon aimag, which has the capacity to produce 104,000 tons of pig iron per year.
2. Focus Metal Mining LLC put into operation in 2014 its iron ore wet processing plant at Khudagbaishint iron ore deposit in Buregkhangai soum of Bulgan aimag. This environment-friendly plant with a rotating water system and modern equipment processes 600,000 tons of iron ore in a year and has the capacity to produce 300,000 tons of wet concentrate with 65 per cent prospect.
3. Wagner Asia Technology LLC pioneered use of certain mining automation technology products in Mongolia, including those for comprehensive remote control with satellite GPS system, camp management, monitoring service, software. Its strong infrastructure based on wireless internet connection includes five different operating systems with five different functions.
The award went to Focus Metal (65.5 points), with Beren Metal (60 points) and Wagner Asia Technology (40 points) following.
Category: Stable operations
There were three nominees.
1. Southgobi Sands LLC carried out operations at Ovoot Tolgoi mine in compliance with the approved feasibility study and prior planning during troubled times for coal mining and took several measures to keep employment rate stable. Even at a time for cost cutting in the industry, the company commissioned a 43-km motorable road with 24 cm cement concrete pavement from Nariinsukhait to Shiveekhuren and did not reduce its support and contribution to local development.
2. Wagner Asia Technology LLC, a subsidiary of the Wagner Asia group, has kept its liquid examination laboratory working without break since it was set up, and saw the number of samples in 2014 increase by 10 per cent over the previous year’s. It also increased the laboratory capacity and efficiency, while reducing operating costs.
3. Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC extracted 4.3 tons of coal in 2014 and managed to raise finance in an unfavourable market, set up an inland customs area and develop Tsankhi town, all the while cutting costs but keeping all jobs untouched, and even raising salaries by 20 per cent.
Considering the hair’s breadth difference between SouthGobi (44.7 points) and ErdenesTavan Tolgoi JSC (44 points), the judges decided to name them joint winners. Wagner Asia scored 7 points.
In their acceptance speech, many company representatives regretted that popular perception of mining companies’ performance was generally more emotion-based than professional. They also felt that some errant companies were giving the whole sector a bad name and hoped people would be more discriminating and not paint all with the same brush.
Mining products accounted for 89% of the total export income of our country in 2014, an increase over 2013, while gold miners deposited 13 tons of gold to Mongolbank in 2014. And all this in a year of global crisis for mining! Academician P.Ochirbat, an honoured guest at the ceremony rightly said, “Miners have always worked really hard, but misguided state policy has been continuously causing problems in this sector.”
The Mongolian Mining Journal feels gratified that the awards it instituted only five years ago shoud have acqire such prestige as was cleary shown at the event. We express our gratitude to Wagner Asia Equipment for sponsoring the Mining Journal Awards 2014 ceremony and congratulate them once again on winning The Secretary of State’s Award 2014 for Corporate Excellence.