Earnings were $4.27 billion in 2013, compared with $4.38 billion a year earlier, the National Statistics Office said on its website. Coal shipments declined 41 percent by value.
The slump in earnings underscores the challenges facing Mongolia as economic growth cools, foreign investment declines and the nation’s mineral boom slows amid protracted disputes with key investors. China accounted for 87 percent of exports last year by value, today’s data showed.
Coal exports fell to $1.12 billion last year, from $1.9 billion a year earlier, the agency said today. Volumes fell to 18.3 million metric tons, from 20.9 million tons.
Copper concentrate shipments, the nation’s second-biggest earner, rose 13 percent to $949 million, boosted by the start of shipments from Rio Tinto Group’s Oyu Tolgoi mine. Exports of the concentrate by volume rose 13 percent to 649,800 tons.
Sales to China fell to $3.7 billion last year, from $4.06 billion a year earlier, the data showed.
