D.Enkhbat, who recently took over charge of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, after a career of teaching at a university, has told The Mongolian Mining Journal his aim is “to put things in order after they have been neglected for the last 15-20 years”, following methods practiced “in countries which truly care for the environment”. Enkhbat feels the “entire reclamation methodology and standards (in Mongolia) are outdated” but it is “not too late to shift to the right principles as the really big mining is just starting to develop”.

Mining companies in Mongolia fill up the mined pit and scatter seeds, hoping long-life plants, bushes and trees will grow from seeds on a thin layer of soil. That is not the way of true reclamation as there is no relationship of cooperation between the soil and what grows in it. Mongolians take the soil and the plants separately and then bring them together, ignoring the fact that soil characteristics completely change following mining. In this connection, he says Boroo Gold used seeds from the USA in its reclamation work “but we shall not allow introduction of foreign species”.

Enkhbat says reclamation can be successful “only if procedures are followed right from the beginning, when mining production starts, to the time when mine closure is determined”. Also, there cannot be one reclamation standard for different types of production.