Bloomberg reported that Aspire Mining Ltd the Australian company seeking to build a coal mine in Mongolia, said that it needs government approval for a rail line by the end of the year to meet its production target.

“The critical part in terms of time line is the railway,” Mr David Paull managing director of Perth based Aspire said that in a phone interview. The company expects this month to complete the path of the USD 1.2 billion line that will connect its Ovoot coking coal mine to the northern city of Erdenet.

Mr Paul said that “There’s a very good socioeconomic reason for rail development in northern Mongolia. If we don’t have a railway we don’t have a material production profile for the mine.”

Aspire is seeking the approval as Mongolia’s government wants greater control of Rio Tinto Group’s USD 6.6 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine. The Ovoot mine scheduled to start producing steelmaking coal in 2016 has the second largest coking coal reserve in Mongolia after Tavan Tolgoi’s West Tsankhi.

Mr Paul said that “You have to look at Rio Tinto which obviously sees that Oyu Tolgoi has a terrific long term future. You have to look at the fact that Anglo American just appointed a country director there. These companies are not looking at the next year or 2. They’re looking at the next 5 to 10 years. Aspire’s mining permit is in good standing and there has been no discussion to alter royalty agreements.”

The stock rose 3.1% to 9.9 Australian cents as of 3:49 p.m in Sydney bringing this year’s advance to 46%, compared with the 10% gain in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index.

Aspire’s largest shareholder is SouthGobi Resources Ltd controlled by a Rio Tinto unit which holds 18.8% of the company according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Noble Group Ltd the second-largest shareholder last month increased its stake to 15%.