Miners dig deep to make Mongolia projects pay off
THEY lovingly call it Mine-golia, but the past fortnight has provided some timely reminders for mining companies that their rush towards developing nations is not without its perils.
Without prejudging the claim and counter-claim surrounding Australian lawyer Sarah Armstrong, what's not in dispute is that her company, SouthGobi Resources, has had numerous quarrels with the Mongolian government this year.
There was the well-publicised rejection of Chalco's takeover bid for SouthGobi, a sudden request for work to halt on SouthGobi tenements in April and a notice of an ''investment dispute'' between the two parties over some tenements in July.
For a nation that was supposed to be the hot spot for miners tired of the costs and regulatory burdens in developed countries such as Australia, SouthGobi's recent experience in Mongolia has proved anything but easy.
SouthGobi's parent company (in a Russian doll kind of way), Rio Tinto, has also learnt that life as a foreign corporate in Mongolia is not easy.
The Mongolian government has repeatedly tried to grab a bigger share of wealth from the massive Oyu Tolgoi mine that is being developed in the nation's south by a Rio Tinto subsidiary.
Without prejudging the claim and counter-claim surrounding Australian lawyer Sarah Armstrong, what's not in dispute is that her company, SouthGobi Resources, has had numerous quarrels with the Mongolian government this year.
There was the well-publicised rejection of Chalco's takeover bid for SouthGobi, a sudden request for work to halt on SouthGobi tenements in April and a notice of an ''investment dispute'' between the two parties over some tenements in July.
For a nation that was supposed to be the hot spot for miners tired of the costs and regulatory burdens in developed countries such as Australia, SouthGobi's recent experience in Mongolia has proved anything but easy.
SouthGobi's parent company (in a Russian doll kind of way), Rio Tinto, has also learnt that life as a foreign corporate in Mongolia is not easy.
The Mongolian government has repeatedly tried to grab a bigger share of wealth from the massive Oyu Tolgoi mine that is being developed in the nation's south by a Rio Tinto subsidiary.
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