N.Algaa, Executive Director of the Mongolian
National Mining Association, feels Parliament was “unwise” in asking the
Government to prepare a feasibility study in six months on setting up a copper
smelter. He has told The Mongolian Mining Journal that the state deciding
everything and fixing a deadline “betrays a regressive mindset” and such pressures
do not elicit good results.

A major infrastructure project deserves  careful inputs. Parliament should have
restricted the task of the Government to identifying the possible location(s),
and recommending infrastructure links. Interested companies would then have
recruited the best professional experts to prepare a number of very good
feasibility studies. The final decision on where the copper smelter will be
could then be taken after comparing the studies.

Emphasizing that he was “not against processing
and value addition”, Algaa has said selling the copper as concentrate is not an
option that should be summarily rejected. Selling any amount of copper
concentrate produced will be no problem, as China has many smelters and will
lap it up. The final product usually has more value as costs of smelting and
refining are included, but it is all a matter of proper cost calculation and
clever bargaining.