Mongolia has 985 million tons of iron ore, and this figure accounts for about 0.6% of the mineral in the world according to a research conducted by the “Glojex” company.
Moreover, the company has estimated that the country has more 56 deposits of iron ore. 32 of them are in central region, 13—in eastern region, 6—in Khangai region, and 5—in western region.
The sizes of iron ore extraction and export have been increased by 6.5 times in last five years, and this increase is likely to continue. As of today, Mongolia is exporting 6.5 million tons of iron ore a year.
In accordance with the general standard, the economically available iron ore must have the metal content of 25-60%, and that is called “Commercial reserve”. Most of the iron ore deposits in Mongolia meet this standard.
For many years, Mongolia has been exporting the raw material to the market of Inner Mongolia of China. Due to high expenditure of productions and transportation, the country is selling the mineral with 65-70 US dollars per ton.
It has been projected that the size of enrichment production will reach 10.8 million tons a year from the year 2016 after increasing the extraction, therefore the annual revenue from the mineral will reach 867 million to 1.3 billion US dollars, the research says.
1.75 tons of iron ore, 0.8 tons of coking coal and 0.25 tons of limestone are exploited for producing one tons of iron. Iron ore is also main raw material for steel production, and 98% of iron ore extracted in Mongolia is used for the steel works. The rest of the mineral is used for the productions of cement, stone, agricultural products and others.