“We are and will be here, as we believe in the strength and potential of the Mongolian natural resources sector”

Ariel Cao, North Asia Director of RPMGlobal (previously well known as “Runge” in Mongolia), tells MMJ on RPM’s confidence on the mining sector’s growth in Mongolia, and also how independent insights and advice based on her company’s strong understanding of the requirements of the mining industry and its financiers have helped her company’s success in Mongolia and in other countries. 

Please tell us briefly about your company, and also a little about yourself.
RPMGlobal is a global leading mining technology products and consulting services provider with 50+ years of experience. We are publicly listed in ASX since 2009 with 23 offices in 13 countries and have worked in over 125+ countries to keep the mining industry at the forefront of change, incl. Mongolia, Kazakhstan and China in the North Asia Region. We operate in the major mining regions by a global team structure with our over 400 technical consultants and 2000+ leading associates in a broad network. We have operations in all of the world’s key mining locations enabling us to provide experts who understand the local language, culture and terrain.  

We have two major areas of business: Consulting and Advisory services, and Technology Products (software or mining solutions). Our consulting & Advisory team advise the global mining industry on their most critical issues and opportunities, from exploration to mine closure. Our focus is mainly at the natural resources sector with working experiences on almost all minerals, including coal and metals commodities (both precious and base metals). Energy sector (oil and gas) is not in our capability range at the moment.  Our commodity portfolio is half coal and half non-ferrous metals including industrial minerals like graphite, phosphate, and potash, and also battery minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel and vanadium. 

We offer services at all stages of mining, from exploration to mine closure including geology advisory, exploration design, resource reserve estimation under international standards (JORC / NI 43-101), mining studies (all levels of Feasibility Studies), mine plan and optimization, independent technical due diligence for potential investors. Our major focus is on technological and technical support to mining operators but we also work very closely with global financiers, providing support for all major investment banks like J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Credit Swiss, UBS, and also China-based banks like CICC, Bank of China, ICBC, CCB (China Construction bank) and CMB (China Merchant Bank). On one hand, we perform due diligence for investors looking for good mining assets, and on the other we help banks as their independent evaluator for technical aspects of a project where the investor has approached the market for credit. We have built up a reputation as reliable advisors to credit institutions, seekers of finance, and operators on the ground. 

My journey with RPMGlobal started in 2008 and I’m based in Beijing, China. My special expertise is in business strategy, business development, account management and marketing at our consulting and advisory sector. My focus is working closely with our regional offices to identify and design business strategy, implement business plan to assist the regional offices’ sustainable business growth, promoting our professional capability as well as increasing our brand awareness for the regional markets. I’m truly grateful to be in the current role as the North Asia Director, which grants me opportunities to have a full perception and understanding on our business. I’m very proud of being a member of RPMGlobal and feel lucky to work with my brilliant colleagues all over the world!

What are your recent projects in Mongolia?
RPMGlobal LLC, our Mongolia office, has been registered in Ulaanbaatar early 2010 and we are the only ones to stay with a permanent presence in Mongolia during the downturn. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of RPMGlobal and is fully capable to provide world class mining consulting service to our client’s Mongolian projects. The office is led by Mr. Rodney Graham, an international Executive Geologist, who has been based and working in Mongolia for more than 18 years, is one of RPM’s senior managers. In our Ulaanbaatar office, we also have a solid local Mongolian technical team composed by bilingual (Mongolian-English) senior Mongolian geologists, mining engineers and environment specialist. Our local team are leading experts and not only work on Mongolian projects but also on projects around the world giving them a broad experience.

In the past 10 years, we have completed over 50 metal projects and 20+ coal projects, incl. Bayan Uul gold copper geological review, Chuluut Uranium resource reserve estimate, Erdenet copper and moly JORC resource reserve report, Baganuur coal mine study, Tavan Tolgoi technical due diligence, South Gobi jorc resource, Shivee Ovoo geological review, and etc. Our work for Erdene Resources who, we have worked for many years and completed both Mineral Resource estimates and PEA’s (Preliminary Economic Assessment) for their Zuun Mod Molybdenum, Altan Nar and Bayan Khundii gold projects, the latter two projects are being some of the more exciting precious metals discovery in Mongolia in the last 5 years. 
Please talk to our local office and they will be more than happy to discuss and design a tailored work approach to suit your project. 

Why do you rebrand from Runge to RPMGlobal?
That’s a very good question. RPM stands for Runge, Pincock Allen & Holt, and Minarco-Mineconsult, which were the origins of the company, dating back to 1968. Runge produces mining software; Pincock Allen & Holt provides mining advisory services in the Americas; and Minarco-MineConsult is an independent advisor for investment banks and other mining investors in the Asia-Pacific region. The company has produced over 14,000 mining studies, has been involved with over 75% of mining IPOs in Hong Kong and 90% of Australia’s coal production relies on the company’s software. 

As its global presence began to expand, it became RPMGlobal.  We did not wish our rebranded name to confuse those who had got used to relying on Runge, so we kept the old name in places like there, but we always make it clear that Runge and RPMGlobal are one and the same, and my colleagues in Ulaanbaatar office who have worked for the same company for over 5 to 7 years, some is even from the very beginning. Our business here has been quite stable and even when the market is in its fluctuated period, we are always in Mongolia to support the local community. 

This is also a sign that we have faith in the strength and potential of the Mongolian natural resources sector. Yes, there have been some ups and downs in policies, but we see now the government is working really hard trying to fix things and this is encouraging for the industrial players and foreign investors. We are and will be here, working closely with our local and global clients, who include not just state-owned companies, but also private small and medium enterprises, who give the real strength to the mining sector.

How do you see the long-term outlook for coal and copper, the two most important commodities for Mongolia? Also for battery minerals?
It’s a big topic however I will give a brief on my opinion to the two commodities, understand they are both vital commodities for Mongolia and the world. For copper, due to its wide application in various different industries, I think the demand will be increasing with the growth of the worldwide urbanization, infrastructure and manufacture increase, not mention the renewable energy industry which will require more amount of the base metal – copper. I think China will play a major role of this copper demand increase as its antipollution “blue sky defense” action plan, direct outcome will be promotion and encouragement of manufacture and sales of Electric Vehicles (“EV”), which copper plays an important part. We recently completed an independent technical due diligence on Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa-Kakula copper deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo on behalf  of CITIC Metals, a large Chinese SOE to assist their investment decision making. The transaction went smoothly and CITIC Metals is now holding 19.9% of Ivanhoe’s share which is a sign for the market that copper is in a very good position for a long run. 

Coming to coal, I think the demand will remain stable as it is still the second largest global source of primary energy, behind oil, and the largest source of electricity. China is responsible of over 50% of coal demand and nearly 50% of coal production in the world, although with the above mentioned anti-pollution policies as well as the flat economy, it still the major energy supply for the country. So I think there’ll be still solid demand potential in China although it won’t grow like the boom years back in 7 or 8 years ago. Also in some developing countries, coal is still the affordable energy to develop.  

Regarding to battery minerals, including Battery material is going to be hot as China hopes to start producing more EVs than ICE cars by 2025.
No matter what coal policy China adopts, worldwide demand for it is not going to go away. For example, India, is forming a very large market, would import more in the coming years as its economy grows and also as it is urbanises rapidly. But the Chinese would continue to be involved in the coal business in Mongolia, in so many ways. For example, one of our Chinese clients, which has large coal operations in Mongolia and is still looking for new opportunities locally. There’re many investors are really keen on Mongolia but are waiting for political policies to be stabilized a bit further. 

What services do you offer in Mongolia?
Our consultancy or advisory services begin from the early stage of the mining cycle. In resource estimation, we have proven expertise in international reporting standards like JORC or NI 43-101 and our local team is familiar with the Mongolia standards, as well as the Russian and Chinese ones. So, exploration companies seek our help in whichever way they want to proceed to access finance. As for advisory services, we can help prepare the exploration programme and also design the exploration parameters.  Most mining projects need funds, whether to drill holes and make exploration maps in the early stage, or to later develop the project further. Funding sources require various kinds of reports and studies to assess requests, and we help with this technical documentation at every stage, highlighting the potential of a project and thus adding value to it. We can do mine studies and project economic assessments or PEAs. From this early stage of understanding the project economics, we help also in the next, conceptualizing a mine plan, which is like a scoping study, to identify the different options for extraction, such as underground or open cut. The next level is the pre-feasibility study or PFS. 

RPMGlobal has wide experience of international marketing and of helping mining projects list in an international stock exchange. For those who do not want to go public but need to raise funds, we prepare the feasibility study, to be placed before banks or similar financial institutions. 
To sum up, we offer advisory services in technological, technical and financial areas in equal measure. 

What is the difference between you and your competitors?
I have already mentioned that one particular advantage we have is that we are very close to the international financial network, which includes all major global banks. Within Mongolia we work with Golomt Bank, helping them filter loan requests from projects. All the major big investment banks know that any report or study prepared by us is totally reliable and independent. We are known for not allowing ourselves to be influenced in any manner. When doing business of this nature, RPMGlobal takes up and maintains a transparently clear third-party role. This professional neutrality is what makes both banks and project owners rely on our evaluation or assessment.  

Secondly, no matter in which country, we are working in a global team structure. For instance, when we’re handling a Mongolian project, the client will not only access to our local Mongolian English speaking Ulaanbaatar based technical consultants,  but also a full function international technical experts from RPM’s other offices and will be picked as part of the team due to the project’s nature, mineralogy, mining methods and regional working experience. These team members could be RPM’s Australia, America, and China offices. This gives an international perspective to any job we take up. When preparing anything in compliance with international reporting standards like JORC or NI 43-101 our Mongolian team will work hand in hand with our international consultants elsewhere. This is standard practice in RPMGlobal whose offices in different countries do not compete with one another but work as a team. 

Since we work in Mongolia as an integral part of a global team, we can work independent of any local consideration, thus guaranteeing the good quality of our work. The reputation of our brand name in the industry is very important for us.
Apart from this, we score over other consulting firms in that we have our technology products (i.e. mine planning, operations economics planning solutions) to help expedite our technical review project in an efficient approach. This will add more value to our clients’ projects and also differentiate ourselves largely with others.  

Who are your more important customers?
All our customers are vital to the success of RPM’s business. We have a large variety of client base, we work all the time with the leading global resources leaders, such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, Glencore; global commodity leaders, i.e. Yancoal, Adani, Barrick, Anglo American, Freeport McMoRan, CMOC, MMG; major mining contractors, i.e. Mitsui, Itochu and Sumitomo. We also work closely with international commercial banks and investment banks, incl. JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS, BMO, and etc to provide independent technical support for them. In China, we have worked closely on most of the major mining transactions on behalf of our local clients’ outbound investment as well as their international fund raising for project further development, clients including Yancoal, Citic Metals, CMOC, Wanbao, Shandong Gold, China Gold, and etc.  
We have been working closely with local Mongolian clients as well and will keep on strengthen our ties with the local mining community.

How do you see the future of your Mongolian operations?
We have high expectations in Mongolia. There is a lot of interest in Mongolia and we have had lots of enthusiastic preliminary enquiries from local and international clients on gold, graphite, and coal. Local entrepreneurs approach us about international JORC standard or resource estimation or to do a PFS for further project development or project fund raising. All this indicates the market confidence, and this optimism is borne out by the rising figures of new investment in the past six months. We’re looking forward to working with the clients to develop their projects forward.  

Developing infrastructure is very important for Mongolia, but no less so is wider use of up-to-date information technology. Australia and other major mining countries see application of intelligent mining as the coming wave.  New hardware and software will be used to lower mining costs and raise productivity. RPMGlobal’s Enterprise approach, built on open industry standards, delivers the leading digital platform that connects the systems and information seamlessly, amplifying decision-making across the mining value chain. We believe with our strong presence and experience with the local Mongolian mining community built up by our advisory team, we are looking forward to introduce our intelligent mining solutions to the local market as well. 

What new services will you be offering?
We would be more than happy to work with local investors or banks on helping them to filter projects from a technical perspective to support their investment or loan decision making; meanwhile, we hope to re-introduce our well known training courses (incl. Mining For Non-Miners and Mining Economics) to the Mongolia market. This will help the local project owners or financiers better armed with mining knowledge and assist them to work on mining projects from an tech-economic perspective. Our Mining For Non Miners course will cover all aspects of mining, such as geology, mining, processing, marketing, sales etc., and all mining professionals will find interest in them. It will be of particular use to local junior professionals, but these are the people who will carry Mongolian mining forward. Regarding to Mining Economics will provide an area of special use for business analysts and for engineering and technical people who need to get a total picture of how different aspects coalesce to help a mine operate successfully.

We also hope we could introduce our world leading technology products into the local market one day. Exciting things are happening, watch this space!