The Oyutolgoi mineral deposit located in southern region of Mongolia is ranked as the 3rd in the world by its gold and copper resources. It has been calculated that the deposit has 25 million and 400 thousand tons of copper, 89,600 tons /eighty nine thousand and six hundred/ of molybdenum, 5,144 tons /five thousand and one hundred forty four/ of silver and 1,028 tons /one thousand and twenty eight/ of gold.
The Oyutolgoi LLC is developing the mine that will exploit the world's one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold resources. From August of 2011, the company is removing 220-230 /two hundred and thirty thousand/ tons of barren overburden a day. The depth of overburden is 615 meters with 41 phases.
The Oyutolgoi deposit will be exploited in two stages. Like the open cast mine, construction works for the underground mine are intensively running, and it is expected the construction of the underground mine will be completed in 2017. As of present, the first vertical shaft is being excavated to 1,300 meters from ground. Constructed for the exploration purposes in 2008, this shaft is used for transporting miners and mining equipment. The second vertical shaft is used for transporting ore to the surface.
The Oyutolgoi company is planning to export the concentrate from beginning of the year 2013 and also intends to extract 18 thousand tons of ore a day on the underground mine from 2017.
After extracting and concentrating, the ore will be transported on a 80 km paved-road to export it to China.