Earlier today, the Gold Forum was held at Blue Sky Hotel. Over 200 delegates from the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industries, the Central Bank of Mongolia, the Finance Ministry, the General Agency for Specialised Investigation, the General Intelligence Agency of Mongolia, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, gold exploring companies, international experts and other gold related entitles have participated in the forum.

The gold industry of Mongolia has enjoyed stable growth over the last four years after improvement of legal environment, stressed the gold producers. Gold output has increased since 2014 and has been continuously increasing. The gold sector stockpiles annually USD 500-800 million reserves.

The Central Bank of Mongolia (Mongol Bank) purchased 20 tonnes of gold and increased foreign currency reserve by USD 700 million in 2017. The bank is aiming to increase gold purchases to 22 tonnes in 2018 and to raise the foreign currency reserve to USD 760 million from gold purchases. As for first nine months of 2018, the bank purchased 14.3 tonnes of gold from legal entities and individuals.

The bank’s gold purchase is high due to the decrease in taxes for the precious metal to 2.5 percent under the ‘Gold’ programme since 2012. However, low royalty taxes on gold will expire in 2019. In 2010, the bank’s gold purchase was as low as two tonnes a year due to high taxes.