Deep in the heart of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia amid a landscape of sand dunes and ice canyons, one of the world’s biggest copper mines is about to come on stream.
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto and Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources have jointly led construction of the US$6.2 billion Oyu Tolgoi mine which is expected to produce 450,000 tonnes of copper concentrate a year at its peak.
Oyu Tolgoi has estimated that by the time the mine is in full production in 2019, peak earnings could provide up to one-third of government revenue, averaging 800 billion tugriks (about US$575 million) per year over the life of the project.
That holds out the promise of vast revenues for the government that can be spent on infrastructure and education if corruption can be kept in check.
“Most countries that have natural wealth have failed,” President Elbegdorj Tsakhia said in an interview.
“Those that succeed are open countries, meaning they have open policy and democracy,” said the 49-year-old, who studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School of government and was elected in 2009. “I regard my country as an open country.”
