The Government delivered a written petition on the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement renegotiation to Rio Tinto three times and had a face to face meeting, announced the Minister for Mining Industry, D.Gankhuyag. During a press conference with journalists he gave feedback of measurements conducted by the Ministry of Mining Industry and answered questions related to the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement. D.Gankhuyag announced that if he could not make changes to the Agreement he will resign.

But foreign press reports that the main investor of Oyu Tolgoi, Rio Tinto, keeps refusing to renegotiate on the Investment Agreement.

Rio Tinto explains the reason behind the refusal of renegotiation through the 28th act of article 15 in the Investment Agreement. They say that the Government accepts the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement signed on 9th July 2009 because it meets the needs of  57th parliamentary decree.

Minister for Mining Industry, D.Gankhuyag said that “There are requirements for changes to be made in the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement.  The start-up investment for the Oyu Tolgoi project was schedule at 4.7 billion US dollars. But investors report that investments have exceed by 7 billion US dollars than first planned.  Therefore there is an urgent requirement to clarify the amount of startup investment for Oyu Tolgoi.  And investors explain that they have spent over 3 billion US dollars for the underground mining development of the Oyu Tolgoi site.  The Mongolian Government should increase its stake on Oyu Tolgoi by recouping its start-up investment to foreign partners. This is why we want to make it clear.”

He answered the question posed by news.mn: “If Rio Tinto keep refusing to renegotiate what steps  will the Ministry of Mining Industry take?”

“We will try and work hard until the Agreement is changed.”