Miner is Mongolia's first company to list in HK

HONG KONG — Mongolian Mining Corp. Wednesday became the country's first company to list in Hong Kong via a 650-million-US-dollar share sale that underlines China's avid demand for raw materials and energy.

Mongolia's biggest coking-coal producer, which was formerly known as Energy Resources, priced its shares at 7.02 Hong Kong dollars (90 US cents) each to raise a total of 650 million US, sources told Dow Jones Newswires.

Compared to the initial public offer (IPO) price, Mongolian Mining shares were up nearly two percent at 7.15 dollars and were the third most heavily traded stock on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Wednesday.

The IPO comes amid heightened investor interest in Mongolia, which borders China, a major consumer of the former Soviet satellite's iron ore, copper, coal and other natural resources.

A year ago, Mongolia's government signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with resources giant Rio Tinto and Canada-based Ivanhoe Mines to develop Oyu Tolgoi, a vast copper-gold complex in the South Gobi desert.

Mongolian Mining has a major presence in the country's Tavan Tolgoi coal field, which has some of the world's largest untapped coal reserves.

The deposit, 270 kilometres (165 miles) from the border with China, contains 6.4 billion tons of coal -- about a quarter of which is high-grade coking coal, a key ingredient for steel production, while the rest is thermal coal.

"Coal is becoming a very hot topic in Mongolia," Mongolian lawmaker Sanjasurengiin Oyun told AFP at a mining conference in the capital Ulan Bator last month.

"Coal prices are up and energy demand from China is insatiable. Now is the time to diversify and get beyond copper and gold and onto our other natural resources."

Another company active in Mongolia, SouthGobi Energy Resources, also listed in Hong Kong in January but it is majority-owned by Ivanhoe Mines and is headquartered in Canada.

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