Prof. Punsalmaa Ochirbat, mining engineer, writes on cooperation in the mining sector between Mongolia and Germany.
It is no surprise that relations and cooperation between Mongolia and Germany have been developing in many streams, including in the mineral sector, successfully. People of the two countries have known each other for many years. Occupying Europe in the 1240s, Chinggis Khaan’s grandson, Batkhan, did not attack Germany after an exchange of letters with the German Emperor, Friedrich II. In more modern times, many German travellers and expeditions visited Mongolia, and their accounts and memoirs attracted the attention of German scholars for specific research on Mongolia.
The first German companies to do business in Mongolia came in the 1920s, and a group of Mongolian students left for Germany in 1926, beginning a trend that has until today seen around 30,000 Mongolians receiving education in Germany. This is the foundation of Mongolia-Germany cooperation. This essay divides this cooperation into three distinct phases. The first covers the period between, roughly, 1960 and 1990; the second, the first two post-transition decades; and the third looks at the immediate present and into the future.
The most important areas of cooperation in the first phase were in the geological and mining sectors. German geologists and miners did exploration work in Boroo, Zuun Mod and Bayanhongor.
Three such exploration groups worked in the gold deposits of Boroo Narantolgoi, Sujigt and Tsagaanchuluut during 1965-1972. German miners also did the heavy earth digging work at some places. Their exploration work in Boroo led the Germans to conclude that 1,500 kg of gold could be extracted annually, but further construction work was postponed until the global price of gold picked up. Detailed studies were resumed in 1983 and the grade was established to be 3.1g/t according to B+C2. I do not know why the German side decided to stop their work at Boroo some years later.
Mongolian students used to be sent to study drilling and to work on the Boroo concentration plant during 1975-1993, and since 1989 around 400 Mongolians have studied mineral science in Gommern and Nordhausen. Germany participated in an international geological expedition in Mongolia (1975-1990) and were specially active in the northern part of Kherlen and the southern part of the Gobi.
German geologists explored the Salhit zinc deposit near the Sukhbaatar province center and discovered the Tumurtei Ovoo zinc deposit. During 1972-1977, miners of Schachtbau Nordhausen deepened the shaft at the Burentsogt tungsten mine from 180 meters to 360 meters, thus exposing a much larger part of the ore body to extraction.
In 1987, the Freiberg Mining Academy and the Polytechnic University of Mongolia signed an agreement to conduct academic research on rare metals in the Altai region, with funding from the German Research Council (DFG).
The University of Science and Technology of Mongolia signed an agreement with the Freiberg Technical University and the Aachen Technical University to train Mongolian students, and to offer them scholarship to conduct academic research and do Ph.D. work at these German centers. The Aachen university also agreed to build an experimental laboratory of semi production of mineral concentration at the mining engineering school of the University of Science and Technology of Mongolia.
The technical cooperation projects in the mineral sector planned after 1990 include:
- Research on discovering non metal minerals, where geological studies were made on such deposits and occurrences, availability of raw materials evaluated, their quality assessed, studies made of demand, supply, exports and import opportunities, and a database prepared.
- The central geological laboratory was accredited as an expertise center of international status.
- Gold analysis made according to global standards.
- Upgrading the equipment at the central laboratory, and improving its market analysis and management methods.
several projects to provide more facilities in the central laboratory, and to build more capacity to analyze cyanide according to international standards, and to record more detailed and accurate data on national geological resources. Training programs were organized in mining operation control, reclamation and environmental protection, and to recommend measures to develop environmentally friendly mining.
The present year has seen new political and economic groundwork being laid to advance the cooperation to a new stage. Germany wants to expand its own mineral sector and has started to upgrade its fluorspar mines. It also plans to increase its metallurgical production. The European Union decision to promote the coal sector and the new energy policy of the German Government will give a new direction to cooperation with Mongolia. German electronics and information technology industries will need more rare metals and rare earth elements.
Mongolia has a very large reserve of coking coal. It also has rare earth elements and rare metals. Based on these and other relevant factors, bilateral cooperation in the mineral sector has the potential to move from the technical level to mutually profitable economic cooperation.
Projects recommended for immediate start are:
- Building a coking plant on the Tavan tolgoi deposit, transport the coke to the northern ports of Russia to be transported to Germany. The transit transport issue has to be discussed with Russia.
- It can also be transported to Chinese sea ports and shipped from there to Germany.
- Rare metal and rare earth elements exploration should be done on specific occurrences and mineralization spots, and a plant should be built to produce the final products for export to Germany.
- Construction of a plant to gasify and liquefy coal.
- Intensify training of professionals and joint research and strengthen the research laboratory base.
The German experience in environmental reclamation defines global standards, and should be used here.