BBC NEWS: Mongolia on verge of mineral boom

[SealLion]

Folks, I am under the impression that the following post I'm going to make is going to be a long one. So if you hate long posts, which I know that some of you think that I do post too long, then this isn't going to be any good reading for you.

However, I know that most of you probably don't mind.

I figured that after reading on the news from BBC that this would be an interesting post as I did a little bit of research on the internet on a couple of things that are discussed herein.

I figured that Mongolia is going to be a nice topic since I 've never touched upon any subject involving Mongolia before.

check it out:

Mongolia has gold. And lot's of it.

Mongolia is about to experience an unprecedented boom. By 2013, the mining of some of the world's largest unexploited mineral deposits will begin to herald a transformation of the economy.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm stating that because Mongolians are known to be nomads. It's part of Mongolian culture for herders in that country to be nomads.
City life, I don't think is for everyone when nomadism has been part of one's culture for so long.
YOu understand what I"m getting at so far??
Think of it this way:
When there's industrialism and nomadism is in clash with industry, how do you think that this would affect the ancestral nomadic routes to water, food, land for grazing, and so on??
I am of the opinion that it would be detrimental.

It is much the same as when a fence is placed along a highway that runs through a National Park. That fence prevents the natural migration of wildlife that those animals have been using to get to food, water, breeding grounds, and so on.

Banff National Park is one such example in my country. If any of you have ever experienced traveling along the main highway there, you'll understand what I mean.
With the exception of a few wildlife corridors that now force the wildlife to re-route themselves elsewhere, there is little for wildlife to migrate themselves using their natural wildlife corridors that they've been using since for-ever.

Animal wildlife travelling throughout the Gobi desert in Mongolia would face very similiar circumstance that have been in place in Banff National Park in my country for quite a few years now.

Here's what I mean:

These deserts and the surrounding regions sustain many animals, .......The area is vulnerable ...human impacts are greater in the eastern Gobi Desert, .....

LInk:Conservation

It does make mention of the area being vulnerable to livestock, but also to vehicles traveling the area.
Mining trucks are vehicles, are they not??

So now, with the Mongolian nomads and the potential clash with mining industry, it's really no different.

Wildlife in the Gobi dessert having their natural travel-routes potentially being destroyed and the nomads being potentially forced to re-route their nomadic routes for food, grazing, etc...etc...elsewhere.

At least that's how I would see it.

It's also common knowledge that mining literally rips up the land. Never mind reclamation efforts. Most of those are laughable.

Let's continue, shall we....

Mongolia has virtually every desirable mineral resource. Gold, copper, coal, uranium, iron ore and oil all lie below the earth of this huge landlocked nation.

this is correct. If you have a look at Wikipedia, you'll see:

Large copper and gold deposits located at Oyuu Tolgoi, about 80 kilometers from the Chinese border into Mongolia, are being investigated for mining operations

LInk: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobi_desert"]Gobi desert[/ame]

Pretty soon, we'll get to the meat of this news brief, folks.

But it is the development of the gold and copper mine ..... that is most eagerly anticipated........The Mongolian government has retained a 34% stake in it after lengthy negotiations with Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto, the companies contracted to construct and operate the new mine complex.

See that embolded type above listing that mining company, Rio Tinto??
I decided I'm gonna make some quick research on this company.

This is what I found out:

Opposition to the company focuses on its mining methods due to environmental degradation......

Now the above quote continues with some nonsense about Global Warming. I'm not too fond of this theory myself.
As a matter of fact, I think it's a farce.

but that's not why I put that in place.

I put that in place there because it is common knowledge that mining companies, albeit their contribution to the economy, are more concerned about wealth production than they are over environmental health maintenance after their mining operations have taken place.

Regardless of what that company's advertising propaganda tells you.

But I'm going to continue with that same quote above and contribute to it by adding this from the same link:

Opposition to the company focuses on its mining methods due to environmental degradation......Perhaps the most significant environmental criticism to date has come from the Government of Norway, which divested itself from Rio Tinto shares and banned further investment due to environmental concerns. Claims of severe environmental damages......

The investment that is being spoken of above relates to an investment fund.

The whole thing is related to poor and unethical mining operations in Indonesia. As such, the Norwegian government involved decided to exclude this same company from it's investment portfolio.

Apparently, this same company, according to Wikipedia also has poor human rights and labor records:

Here's a snippet:

....serious human rights violations which have been occurred near the mines it operates in Indonesia, West Papua and Papua New Guinea

There's also this:

The 2001 British documentary The Coconut Revolution tells the story of the eventual success of the local indigenous peoples in overcoming the plans of the company and the New Papuan army

Just by looking at that last quote above, it seems like corporatism with all it's financial power has it's sway once again.

Now why on earth would a company desire to evict an indigenous group of people from an area??

Let's find out, shall we....

There was also resistance to the forced appropriation of village land for the development of port facilities for the mine......mine pollution was responsible for the death of fish and the dis-appearance of flying foxes (food).....

LINK

IT's a bit of a convoluted article, but it does make some sense even when skimming it.
But I believe that you got the point above, yes??

Nevertheless, let's continue. I think you know where I'm headed to with this Rio Tinto thing anyways. I think that your probably getting the picture now. There's more on this Rio Tinto mining company.

Some very fishy and unethical behavior as you'll see....

The company has won an award for ethical behavior, the Worldaware Award for Sustainable Development in 1993.

The award, although given by an independent committee, is sponsored by another multinational corporation (in this case, the sponsor was Tate and Lyle).

Rio Tinto has, in turn, sponsored its own WorldAware award, the Rio Tinto Award for Long-term Commitment. The British charity Worldaware ceased to exist in March 2005

fishy, eh??
sniff, sniff......do you smell that??............I smell corruption.

Link to the above:

LInk

So, with all this handy information on one of these mining company's and their possible involvement in the most recent Gobi desert mining news,....what' do you think would be a part of this outcome??

Cultural and historical nomadism being interrupted within that region of the Gobi desert, the interruption of wildlife travel corridors, laughable land reclamation efforts, work done by a mining company that has a spotty environmental and human-right's record along with some fishy and unethical corporate behavior on ecology with it's WorldAware awards, and so on and so on.....

Now don't get me wrong here. I'm all for building up a country's economy. I'm just not for it when you have a company which happens to have a poor track record on a few things.

I understand Mongolia's drive to rid itself out of this so-called Global Depression, which IMO, was something that was deliberately set up for reasons that have been discussed a few times before.
But let's not talk about that here.
That's been discussed elsewhere, actually.

I would hope that Mongolia, should it go full steam ahead on this mining excersize with these 2 international mining companies, does it with some prudence to it's very delicate ecological areas.

The Gobi desert, after all, is home to many, many fissile finds, some very unique wildlife and some prehistoric stone tools findings.

Here's the link to the whole news article:

BBC News - Mongolia on verge of mineral boom

enjoy.

[slikrapid]

as SealLion wrote about economy, environment & co. i'll post some probably rarely known political & military info about mongolia:

as strange as it may sound, mongolia was/is participating in both the iraq (multiple troop rotations) and afghanistan war
notice the (genghis) khan reoccurring motif, obviously not related to peacekeeping, more like conquering

Because of its history, its location and the nations which surround it, Mongolia would seem the last country in the world to host annual Pentagon-led military exercises and to be the third Asian nation to offer NATO troops for the war in Afghanistan....

The mission “will mark its largest military presence in Afghanistan since the age of Genghis Khan.”...

However, the U.S. first secured Mongolian troops for the war in Afghanistan much earlier, in 2003, and Genghis Khan was invoked for the occasion, which should cast in doubt the references to peacekeeping used in subsequent citations. The latest development signals the transition from a bilateral U.S.-Mongolian military partnership to the broadening of NATO’s role in Asia and the further consolidation of an Asian NATO....

With US funding and training, the Mongolian government built a peacekeeping force of 5,000 troops from its current force of 11,000 troops.” [12] Almost half its men under arms are available for deployments abroad.

there is also some info on the ever-expanding nato bases:

In the last decade alone the U.S. has acquired bases and other military installations and stationed its armed forces throughout parts of the world that it had never penetrated during the Cold War era

New bases on every inhabited continent outside the Pentagon’s own.

Mongolia, however remote it is and previously inaccessible it may have been, is no exception to the wave of worldwide U.S. military expansion.

check out these numbers, if that isn't strange (or alarming) i don't know what is:

There are in fact more than 45 countries with troops subordinated to NATO in the Afghan war zone in addition to those from all but six European nations, two South Pacific ones (Australia and New Zealand), a Persian Gulf state (the United Arab Emirates), all three South Caucasus nations (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), Asia’s Singapore and South Korea and the U.S. and Canada.

Last November the Financial Times confirmed that Colombia was deploying infantry forces to Afghanistan under NATO command, in December the ISAF website divulged that Egyptian military personnel are operating in the east of the country [1], and this January the U.S. armed forces newspaper Stars and Stripes revealed that troops from Bahrain and Jordan were already in the war zone.

now troops from all six populated continents are among those of fifty-some-odd nations serving under NATO – soon to number 150,000, with almost all U.S. forces placed under NATO command – in not only a single war theater but in one country. The world has never before witnessed such a widespread military network concentrated on and in one small land.

flirting with the nato & usa brought not only monetary aid (mostly military), but also a shift from communist to 'democratic' (read: capitalist) government

Mongolia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has helped cement its alliance with the United States and secure grants and aid.”

Earlier in the year, on May 24 (2009), the candidate of the Democratic Party, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, won the nation’s presidential election, becoming the first president never to have been a member of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and the first to have been educated in the West. In fact he received a diploma from the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Economic Institute in 2001 and a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government the following year.

The nation’s military ties with Washington and with NATO can be expected to grow even firmer and more extensive under the Elbegdorj administration.

With its vast expanse (over 600,000 square miles) and its sparse population (less than 3 million people with almost 40 percent living in the capital), Mongolia is the optimal location for U.S. military surveillance (ground, air and satellite) to monitor China and Russia simultaneously. The nation’s new U.S.-educated head of state is not likely to deny Washington’s requests in that regard.

Mongolia: The Pentagon's Trojan Horse. US-NATO Partner Wedged Between China And Russia

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18423

[desodorante]

I think the reason behind this is that China has dropped their mineral importing almost to nothing in the last decade, and they own the biggest reserves on some rare minerals.
I believe that the US is simply trying to get cheap mineral resources back on track, you know that they can not live without a dozen gadgets at any time (which have chips that use those rare minerals ), what will they do if their population can not massively consume devices, becomes paranoid and finds out the truth?
And you can certainly expect the worst from mining companies in "3rd world" countries, and that Norwegian company you mentioned.
Here, in Argentina, that same company built a paper processing factory (don't know the right word in english) in the riverside of Gualeguaychu. Since then, the water smells, people get allergic reactions, fish died, and they are ruining a natural water reserve, which is the Parana river.
Also, mining companies here use mercury and do open sky mining, not to mention they are PAID by the government to take OUR minerals (Yes, the government PAYS foreign companies to extract the minerals, while allowing them to use prohibited mining techniques)
Ok, now I am angry

[slikrapid]

I believe that the US is simply trying to get cheap mineral resources back on track, you know that they can not live without a dozen gadgets at any time (which have chips that use those rare minerals ), what will they do if their population can not massively consume devices, becomes paranoid and finds out the truth?

lets say that the usa is overzealously (and thats an understatement) trying to get ahold of a large piece of the pie in diverse profitable areas in way too many countries throughout the world, creating some sort of a controllable empire

as for their, through various means methodically brainwashed, majority of population, it seems like nothing can awaken them from this artificially induced deep slumber - what their governments got away with is just unbelievable

And you can certainly expect the worst from mining companies in "3rd world" countries, and that Norwegian company you mentioned.

if i understood it right, the norvegian government held shares in this company (non-norvegian), but decided to part ways with them - the official reason was bad environment policy (not necessarily the real reason, of course)

Here, in Argentina, that same company built a paper processing factory (don't know the right word in english) in the riverside of Gualeguaychu.

the wikipedia link mentiones 2 plants/factories with finnish & spanish owners, but not norvegian

After ENCE received its permit, another company, the Finnish Botnia,[3] made public their intention to consider the same area for another pulp mill. Botnia received the environmental authorization to build a mill in February 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_plant_conflict_between_Argentina_and_Uruguay

Since then, the water smells, people get allergic reactions, fish died, and they are ruining a natural water reserve, which is the Parana river.
Also, mining companies here use mercury and do open sky mining,

we had an article here about similar practices in guatemala, with gold mining

http://www.sb-innovation.de/showthre...threadid=19264

not to mention they are PAID by the government to take OUR minerals (Yes, the government PAYS foreign companies to extract the minerals, while allowing them to use prohibited mining techniques)

are you sure about the paying part, as it is usually the governments that impose conditions and get a part of the profit and/or license fee on mining operations done by foreign companies - is this the case you are referring to:

Pascua Lama is a mining project at a large and complex poly-metallic orebody in the high mountains south of Atacama on the border between Chile and Argentina.

Barrick Gold acquired the deposit with its acquisition of Lac Minerals in 1993

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrick_Gold_Corporation#Pascua_Lama_project

[desodorante]

the wikipedia link mentiones 2 plants/factories with finnish & spanish owners, but not norvegian

My bad, I feel so dumb!

are you sure about the paying part, as it is usually the governments that impose conditions and get a part of the profit and/or license fee on mining operations done by foreign companies - is this the case you are referring to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrick_Gold_Corporation#Pascua_Lama_project

That I am sure, the government offers a subsidy to some foreign mining companies. So we end up paying them to take away our mineral resources.
There is a few reports on the TV from time to time. The last one I saw was about a mining project that promised to hire something like 5000 workers and only got 80. On top of that they were studying if there was gold below that little town, in which case they were authorized by the authorities to MOVE people living there.
Oh and also I said mercury, I meant cyanide (not a good day really )

I recommend you and everyone a Pino Solana's documentary about mining in Argentina: “Tierra Sublevada: oro impuro" (Earth revolted: impure gold)
In fact, you may watch each and every documentary he made just to get an idea of what foreign companies have done here (which happened in all south america as well)

[slikrapid]

My bad, ...(not a good day really )

don't worry about it, happens to all of us

I recommend you and everyone a Pino Solana's documentary about mining in Argentina: “Tierra Sublevada: oro impuro" (Earth revolted: impure gold)
In fact, you may watch each and every documentary he made just to get an idea of what foreign companies have done here (which happened in all south america as well)

and thx for the suggestions, haven't heard about these documentaries before

[SealLion]

I can see that Columbia sending troops off to Afghanistan since they are now more closely aligned with their newest benefactor to the north.

Alignment normally brings not only economic benefits to the new ally, in this case, Columbia, but also other benefits such as new international trade deals and it wouldn't surprise me but even the release of some trade barriers between Columbia and the United States ( if there are any to begin with, that is).

I went to the Global Research link you provided, Slik and I read this:

.....Seven new military, including air and naval, bases in Colombia agreed upon last summer.....

I know that we've discussed Columbia numerous times. The tell-all is that these bases are constructed for fighting drug wars and all.
That's not entirely correct.
Those bases are there to serve a purpose to Venezuela.
And Venezuela has oil, yes??

Now getting back to improved trade between countries that serve as an ally to the larger NATO members, it's not only the military in those countries that benefit from improved military ties between themselves and their new allies, it's also the corporate world that benefits as well.

Construction of war machines makes money, does it not??
I mean, how much does it cost to build a war plane, especially the newer and more technologically advanced??
...try like half-a-billion dollars or so.


So, I think the same can be said for Romania. Remember when the news announced some time ago when Romania was having missile shields set up in it's country by, I think it was NATO.

That happened some months ago, but I do recall it being posted here in the news section.

What happened in Romania some months ago with the setting up of missiles in that country is what is similarly happening in Columbia now.

Also, much like you say in your post Slik, with the proximity of China to Mongolia and the potential " threat" that China would serve to others in the West. What with computer hacking wars that have been reported to occur between China and some other countries in the West, is it any wonder that listening posts would be set up.

However, as has been expressed numerous times here in the news section, IMO, these so called 'threats' are made for TV-Land.

They are construed and manipulated to cause confusion, chaos, and fear, and out of chaos is called for order.
Nothing less.

Mongolia will be taken advantage of nonetheless. Both militarily and corporately.
Large multi-nationals will set-up shop there to build this 'n that. '

Sure, it'll improve the economic situation there, but there's always an underlying cause and effect to these events and actions.
Always.

The stock prices of those companies doing new business there will increase, the share-holders will be happy and before long everybody's happy.
Nothing wrong with being happy when the share go up in price and value.
Dont' get me wrong, ...but it's basically an expansion of corporatism.

IMO, it's not governments in the future that will be governing countries on the earth. With the expansion of corporatism on a global scale, I wouldn't be surprised to see the large corporate members not only merge and become some kind of mega-corporation, but perhaps even make decisions for the national good.

Does that make sense??

I'm not saying that I have a crystal ball and can see things through it or anything, I"m just stating that this could very well be a possibility. And I"m saying that in consideration of the global expansion of the corporate world in pretty much every corner on earth as it is happening in today's time.