The inaugural Mongolian Coal and Infrastructure Conference began this morning, with representatives of 170 foreign companies, and the US, German and Russian Ambassadors attending.  The coal bonanza in Mongolia is gathering pace as news of mine developments and rail projects are announced on a growing basis, but so much is still unknown about the huge potential of Mongolian coals, the diversity of qualities, size of deposits, accessibility and what is required to bring the coals to market, and the conference will discuss all these in detail.

Mongolia mined 25 million tons of coal in 2010 of which 18 million tons were exported. Output is expected to rise to 50 million tons in 2015 and 90 million tons in 2025. It is imperative to improve infrastructure, particularly transportation facilities, to make most of this capacity.

The conference will end tomorrow.