Ts.Enkhtaivan: Mongolian stones can be used in roads and construction
-Where is the level of production of Mongolian stone products at?
-People say that there is no high grade stone in Mongolia or its production is not developed. But, today, some 20 companies are enterprising in this direction and operating with some 600 to 7,000 workers. It will be beneficial if we produce a high quality, low cost product with our rich stone resources than to use low quality stones from China in roads and construction. Even though we have entrepreneurs in the stone sector, we are not using their products. The stone of Mongolia is incomparable when it comes to its quality and tenability with stone from other countries. The government recently approved the production of road and construction materials with stone. It is a common thing that Chinese stone is used in the production of raw materials to be used in construction.
When I did lithoglyph in a Chinese factory, I discovered that their stone is softer than ours. When a stone is harder, its quality is better. There is no country in the world like Mongolia with a large amount of stone resources. Stone product manufacturers of Mongolia are operating well. They have permanent orders at a certain level. While Mongolians have a lack of knowledge to use stone, foreign-invested companies, restaurants, and pubs have already been using stone in their facilities like walls, stairs, and nearby road curbs. In particular, Japanese restaurants operating here had made their interiors with stone. People think that stone decorations and facilities are expensive. But that is not the case.
-What is the reason behind importing foreign stone when we have good quality and rich stone resources
here?
-Mongolia is rich in granite. It does exist in all of our provinces. I think the country’s stone resources are sufficient enough in producing raw materials for roads and construction in Mongolia. Large, non-cracked granite is widely used in construction and road works for many designations. Granite has no holes and pores. It is also waterproof and cold resistant. Pink, grey, light, and whitish granite exist in provinces such as Tuv, Khentii, Sukhbaatar, Khovd, Bayan-Ulgii; red granite is found in Selenge, Dornogobi, and Khuvsgul Provinces; black occurs in Zavkhan; and both Tuv and Bulgan Provinces have green. Red, yellow, black, and green granite have relatively expensive costs in the international market. Capital worth several millions of dollars is flowing to our neighbor in the south.
Highly developed foreign countries use stone in the construction sector, particularly in walls, boards, floors, roads, etc. There is no country like Mongolia that builds road curbs with concrete. It is a common image that sidewalks and pedestrian roads are dug and rooted during spring, autumn, and summer for plumbing works. If the road was built with stones, it would be easier to separate and remove them.
It takes a long time to prepare blocks and road curbs. Our city authorities announce the tender bid and demand their preparation within a month. But one month is not sufficient time to achieve this. Then they think that Mongolian stone companies are not capable to provide the raw materials, so they end up importing stone from abroad. Even Chinese companies can’t deliver something like this within a month.
As China has a high population rate and it has a developed industrial base, it always exports stone products to Mongolia. Chinese stone companies also prepare blocks and road curbs in large amounts in advance. Even Japan imports 90 percent of its stone demand from China. Some Mongolian stone product manufacturers do not participate in the tender bids. They say that even if they do, they still cannot win them. Maybe because of that, they barely make blocks or road curbs.
-I was told that our stone products cost less than imported ones.
-It is true that Mongolian stone products are cheaper. They are even cheaper than the Chinese fake ones. Once, our company won over a Chinese firm in a tender bid. It was an expression of support for national manufacturers. Then we participated in a bid to make road curbs, but we lost. The company which won the bid was importing the raw materials from China. The involved parties should understand each other as it does not take a short time to make road and construction materials. Recently, the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar promised to promote and support the National Union of Mongolian Stone Product Manufacturers. The decision has been made to cooperate with national manufacturers in making the road curbs of the 3rd and 4th districts. All the stone product manufacturers are producing these curbs with a dimension of 10×10. As for our company, we have already made 30 thousand of them.
There are many stone product manufacturers in Mongolia. Our company has two factories in Khuvsgul and Sukhbaatar Provinces. The residents of these two provinces are experiencing for themselves the high quality of our stone. The central square of Khuvsgul Province was made with granite. But no one knows how much of Sukhbaatar Square is made of stone and how much is made of block. Khuvsgul is the only province in Mongolia in which its central square is made of pure stone.
-Tell us about your career as a sculptor.
-I graduated from the Fine Arts Institute in 1992 as a sculptor. After graduation, I was doing wood carvings and, in 1998, I made a stupa for the first time. Since then, I have started to craft various sculptures with stone. Stone has a long life span – the Kurgan Stelae of 7th and 8th centuries are still in good condition. Thus, I prefer art pieces with granite stone. “Uuden Chuluu” Company was founded in 2006 and its operations were launched by a young skillful sculptor. Our company employs many talented sculptors, and 18 cultural distinguished sculptors were borne from our company.
Grey filament granites which are used in works of art originate from Erdene Soum, Tuv Province. Large anaglyphs are made from that stone. The best granite is the red granite found in Alag Erdene Soum, Khuvsgul as it is the hardest.
The most difficult thing for stone manufacturers is to prepare the stone. Outer stones are not used in production. The stone for production is dug from underground. A one-cubic meter stone weighs from 2.8 to 3.2 tons.
-Construction works have been launched in Mongolia. For instance, there are plans to build a metro, new airport, etc. It would be fruitful for both sides if Mongolian stone companies participate in those projects, wouldn’t it?
-As stone is valued in cubic meters, a huge investment is demanded. Millions and maybe billions of dollars are needed to build a metro. National manufacturers should produce some percentage of the demanded products in that project and the orders should be made beforehand. If the orders are made from now, the cost of the expenses will be reduced. Even though the metro will go operational in 2020, preparations should be made earlier. Our local producers should be promoted and supported, and Mongolian stone should be used in the construction works of the Ulaanbaatar metro and the new airport in Khushigt Valley.
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