In view of the upcoming Coal Mongolia 2015 event, which is to bring International Investors into the coal sector of Mongolia; to introduce the most advanced, environmentally friendly technologies in coal mining sector; to create a mutually beneficial partnership that will strengthen Mongolia’s competitiveness in Asian region we have met with B.Bat-Enkh, CEO of Minfo LLC, main organizer of the event.
First of all congratulations on the 5th anniversarty of Coal Mongolia. What will be the objectives and trends of Coal Mongolia for this year?
Coal Mongolia’s objective to create a mutually beneficial partnership that will strengthen Mongolia’s competitiveness, thus to help to vitalize one of the main sectors for Mongolian economy.
As the event is held on international level many foreign participants are gathering and have a chance to visit main coalmines in Mongolia, which has number of advantages. Interested parties, such as researchers can actually have a look at developments happening in Mongolia.
Secondly, investors are able to see the real situation at the mines and factories and have a chance to meet with the management and establish partnerships for future investment opportunities. This results in inflow of investments to Mongolia.
How would you rate the past achievements of the event and what are the visions for the future?
This year we are celebrating 5th anniversary and looking back we have been focusing on increasing the coal exports for the last several years. Moreover, we have contributed much to the incoming investment as well.
Starting from this year the objective and trends for the Coal Mongolia participants is to be more focused on creating value and production of the value added end products. One of the main topics of the event has been the infrastructure for the coal market in Mongolia. During the first Coal Mongolia Convention many issues related to road and railroad was unclear, followed by the environmental concerns related to poor infrastructure around the coal mine basins located in the south of the country, where state, local and privately owned entities are operating.
Now we have established road infrastructure at South Gobi and developed the concentration manufacture to process 15 million tons of coal annually.
As of this year we are more hoping for joint policy for the state, local and privately owned coal companies, rather than having separate goals and operations, integrating the sales, production and logistics management and joining the forces to create strong competitor base. This year’s event is significant to be coinciding with the Tavantolgoi consortium negotiations.
Another aspect to be discussed this year through Coal Mongolia should be what other alternative product we can come up with using our vast coal reserves.
One of the first gateways as we see is the development of the power plants at the coal deposits and production of energy with the long-term goal of exporting, after supplying the total domestic energy demand. In view of this direction there are possible opportunities at Baganuur, SHivee-Ovoo, Tavantolgoi and Chandgana Power Plant projects.
On the other hand, the energy export might create another set of issues that needs to be solved within short period of time. Attracting investments and building power plants is one issue, the other concern will be how we should export them to China and Russia. We have to establish infrastructure, which also needs investments and solutions.
Several companies have expressed their interest working in those areas and we are aiming to touch on this matter during Coal Mongolia this year as well. Tavantolgoi consortium negotiations, if successful, will significantly boost our coal market. Moreover, is expected to lead Mongolia to be leader at world coking coal market.
How is the sentiment of the participants for Coal Mongolia 2015 as the number of investors in Mongolian mining sector has decreased?
It is true that Mongolian mining sector have been experiencing downturn for past two years and the investor sentiment is rather negative. But we have managed to convey message to the investors that slowdown itself can create opportunities, as the slowdown leads to lowering of the project value. In other words, there is good chance to acquire deposits at the reasonable price during the down time. It is one main reason to why the number of Coal Mongolia participants is not declining during the past years. This year over 800 participants have registered.
Which countries are more interested in participation? Which speakers are expected?
Japanese and Chinese sides are very interested and comprise the majority of the participants this year in view of the Tavantolgoi consortium negotiations. If the negotiations succeed on both ends the integrated coal basin policy will be implemented, enabling the investment inflow in energy sector, especially in developing transmission lines. There are big global banking institutions ready to finance those projects. As of now, among the confirmed speakers there are Presidents of ING and PNB Paribas.
What was the reason of the change of the date for Coal Mongolia 2015?
Coal Mongolia convention preparations start from the next day of the event. As the event gathers many international speakers, representatives of biggest banking institutions we have to work year round. Previous conventions have been organized in February, which inconveniently coincides with Lunar New year in China. And as main interest in Mongolian coal comes from China we decided to change the dates, to gather more interested parties from the biggest coal market, which is China. We have moved the date to April 9-10 and this has already giving its advantages.
Thank you.
In view of the upcoming Coal Mongolia 2015 event, which is to bring International Investors into the coal sector of Mongolia; to introduce the most advanced, environmentally friendly technologies in coal mining sector; to create a mutually beneficial partnership that will strengthen Mongolia’s competitiveness in Asian region we have met with B.Bat-Enkh, CEO of Minfo LLC, main organizer of the event.
First of all congratulations on the 5th anniversarty of Coal Mongolia. What will be the objectives and trends of Coal Mongolia for this year?
Coal Mongolia’s objective to create a mutually beneficial partnership that will strengthen Mongolia’s competitiveness, thus to help to vitalize one of the main sectors for Mongolian economy.
As the event is held on international level many foreign participants are gathering and have a chance to visit main coalmines in Mongolia, which has number of advantages. Interested parties, such as researchers can actually have a look at developments happening in Mongolia.
Secondly, investors are able to see the real situation at the mines and factories and have a chance to meet with the management and establish partnerships for future investment opportunities. This results in inflow of investments to Mongolia.
How would you rate the past achievements of the event and what are the visions for the future?
This year we are celebrating 5th anniversary and looking back we have been focusing on increasing the coal exports for the last several years. Moreover, we have contributed much to the incoming investment as well.
Starting from this year the objective and trends for the Coal Mongolia participants is to be more focused on creating value and production of the value added end products. One of the main topics of the event has been the infrastructure for the coal market in Mongolia. During the first Coal Mongolia Convention many issues related to road and railroad was unclear, followed by the environmental concerns related to poor infrastructure around the coal mine basins located in the south of the country, where state, local and privately owned entities are operating.
Now we have established road infrastructure at South Gobi and developed the concentration manufacture to process 15 million tons of coal annually.
As of this year we are more hoping for joint policy for the state, local and privately owned coal companies, rather than having separate goals and operations, integrating the sales, production and logistics management and joining the forces to create strong competitor base. This year’s event is significant to be coinciding with the Tavantolgoi consortium negotiations.
Another aspect to be discussed this year through Coal Mongolia should be what other alternative product we can come up with using our vast coal reserves.
One of the first gateways as we see is the development of the power plants at the coal deposits and production of energy with the long-term goal of exporting, after supplying the total domestic energy demand. In view of this direction there are possible opportunities at Baganuur, SHivee-Ovoo, Tavantolgoi and Chandgana Power Plant projects.
On the other hand, the energy export might create another set of issues that needs to be solved within short period of time. Attracting investments and building power plants is one issue, the other concern will be how we should export them to China and Russia. We have to establish infrastructure, which also needs investments and solutions.
Several companies have expressed their interest working in those areas and we are aiming to touch on this matter during Coal Mongolia this year as well. Tavantolgoi consortium negotiations, if successful, will significantly boost our coal market. Moreover, is expected to lead Mongolia to be leader at world coking coal market.
How is the sentiment of the participants for Coal Mongolia 2015 as the number of investors in Mongolian mining sector has decreased?
It is true that Mongolian mining sector have been experiencing downturn for past two years and the investor sentiment is rather negative. But we have managed to convey message to the investors that slowdown itself can create opportunities, as the slowdown leads to lowering of the project value. In other words, there is good chance to acquire deposits at the reasonable price during the down time. It is one main reason to why the number of Coal Mongolia participants is not declining during the past years. This year over 800 participants have registered.
Which countries are more interested in participation? Which speakers are expected?
Japanese and Chinese sides are very interested and comprise the majority of the participants this year in view of the Tavantolgoi consortium negotiations. If the negotiations succeed on both ends the integrated coal basin policy will be implemented, enabling the investment inflow in energy sector, especially in developing transmission lines. There are big global banking institutions ready to finance those projects. As of now, among the confirmed speakers there are Presidents of ING and PNB Paribas.
What was the reason of the change of the date for Coal Mongolia 2015?
Coal Mongolia convention preparations start from the next day of the event. As the event gathers many international speakers, representatives of biggest banking institutions we have to work year round. Previous conventions have been organized in February, which inconveniently coincides with Lunar New year in China. And as main interest in Mongolian coal comes from China we decided to change the dates, to gather more interested parties from the biggest coal market, which is China. We have moved the date to April 9-10 and this has already giving its advantages.
Thank you.