Mongolia’s Mining Ban Really Concern Foreign Investment

Mogolia is a rich mining country, but the government published the mining ban in 2009, which badlly limit the mining industry development and foreign investment, Now a day the foreign investor hope to enter Mongolia Mining Industry again.

Foreign investors in mineral-rich Mongolia hope parliament to revoke a controversial law banning mining in the country's river and forest areas when it convenes for its busy autumn session next month.

Hundreds of foreign firms have been coveting Mongolia's copious and mostly untapped deposits of copper, gold and uranium; But legal and political uncertainties cast a shadow over their investments, and analysts worry that the country could lose out.
Nearly 2,000 mining licenses came under review as a result of the 2009 law and hundreds were suspended, but Mongolia is not yet able to enforce the rules in full because it does not have the funds to pay compensation.
Following the democratic revolution of 1990, isolated Mongolia was desperate to attract as much foreign investment as possible, but a decade of laissez-faire regulation put the country's scarce water supplies in jeopardy, and soaring commodity prices also prompted a policy rethink.
It was a parliamentary backbencher who introduced the water and forest bill, which was passed despite opposition from the government.
The problem, said Chimed-ochir Bazarsad, Mongolia representative with the Worldwide Fund for Nature was timing. Had Mongolia defined where miners could operate before the boom began, it wouldn't have the problems it is facing today.
The president, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, has suspended approvals of all new mining projects until comprehensive new regulations are drawn up.
As technically illegal mining operations continue to operate, environmentalists have tried to take the law into their own hands, with activists even known to attack mines with hunting rifles in order to disable machinery.
Chimed of WWF said the ninja miners were impossible to regulate; And were now entrenched in their communities with well-established trade networks.
Mongolia has a history of introducing and then hastily repealing populist legislation aimed at squeezing more revenues from its mining boom. In 2001, it revoked a gold export tax imposed in 1998; And a mining windfall profit tax was also cancelled in 2009 after two years of complaints.
While many hope the forest and water law will also be repealed, its parliamentary backers are determined to keep it, environmentalists also say revoking the law would be equally knee-jerk.
It is really good to open up the mining industry for the foreign investment from country like China, USA etc, It will be really helpful for the Mongolia economics development.