OT gold production to increase contrary to copper output

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Minister of Mining and Heavy industry Ts.Dashdorj received the leaders of Oyu Tolgoi LLC on August 9, for presentation of the current state of developments of the Oyu Tolgoi Project. OT was represented at the meeting by Director of Board G.Batsukh and former CEO Andrew Woodley, as well as the Country Director for Mongolia of Rio Tinto S.Munkhsukh and others. They stated that the company keeps safety and national procurement principles as priorities, and informed that 93 percent of staff are Mongolian citizens, as of the end of the second quarter of 2016. The company prefers to cooperate with Mongolian suppliers, owned by Mongolians for at least 51 percent. To the Minister’s question on the production performance, the OT leaders stated that copper production is likely to reach 204 thousand tons, slightly lower that the estimation of 208 thousand tons, by the end of this year, while the gold production is expected to go up due to the possibility to extract high grade ores from the second phase of ground mine. Present were also, the Vice Minister Kh.Badamsuren, A.Undraa MP and the heads of departments and divisions of the Ministry.