The
Nature and Environment Ministry would like to enforce environment-protection
measures right from the beginning of the mining expansion, Environment Minister
L.Gansukh has told
The Mongolian Mining Journal. All companies “will be graded and those
not making the mark will face action, maybe even suspension of work, while
those doing well will be rewarded”. He said very little money had been spent in the
environment sector in the last 20 years. “The economy always took precedence
over the environment,” but things are changing.

Expressing concern at the
environmental damage inflicted by trucks carrying coal, Gansukh said the
volume of both production and export of coal “have gone up exponentially and
much too rapidly to give us a chance to prepare for them”. Border ports like Gashunsukhait were
built to handle seasonal trade and where once the coal export volume was 140,000
tons in a full year, it was more than 6 million tons in just the first 8 months
of this year.

The
Minister appealed to all companies in the mining sector to follow the standards
set by Oyu Tolgoi LLC. The company has a 30-person department for environmental
monitoring. It monitors the use of chemicals and its effect on the water, soil,
and vegetation. In comparison, Erdenet Corporation has only 4-5 people for the
job. Energy Resource also has an environment department. It has built a
greenhouse and planted vegetation that suits the Gobi in its reclamation
process. Erdenes MGL, which has just started earth moving, is taking
environmental issues seriously from the very beginning. The first layer of soil
with plants in it is kept carefully, so that they can be replanted somewhere
else.