Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ On October 25, the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry called its regular press briefing ‘Transparent and Accountable Mining’. At the press conference, the Mining and Heavy Industry Minister D.Sumiyabazar briefed about first nine months’ statistical review of the sector.

According to the first nine months of 2018, gross production of industrial sector reached MNT 11.2 trillion, with an increase of MNT1.7 billion (18.8 percent) as compared with the same period of the previous year. 

The production of mining and extractive industries reached MNT8.1 trillion, with an increase of MNT1.2 trillion (16.9 percent), which was mainly influenced by the increase of extractions of coal (46.5 percent) and metal ores (3.9 percent). Extractive industry makes up 72.1 percent in the gross production of industrial sector.

Major commodities of mining and extractive industries include 33.5 million tons of coal, 979.4 thousand tons of copper concentrate, 14.5 tons of gold, 4.0 thousand tons of molybdenum concentrate, 2.5 million tons of iron ore concentrate, 57.1 thousand tons of spar concentrate, 62.6 thousand tons of zinc concentrate, 5.0 million barrels of oil and 10.5 thousand tons of copper cathode.
  

As of first nine months, the total foreign trade turnover reached USD9.633,8 million, with an increase of 24.9 percent as compared with the same period of previous year. The volume of export reached USD5.282,8 million, showing an increase of 15.3 percent against previous year. Exports of mining products including iron ore, brown coal, copper concentrate, zinc concentrate, spar and crude oil make up 84.6 percent of total export.

 99.2 percent of the total exported copper concentrate, 99.1 percent of coal and 58.6 percent of spar and all exported crude oil, iron ore and zinc concentrate went to China. A 41.2 percent of spar was exported to Russia. Unprocessed or semi-processed gold was wholly exported the Great Britain.

The volume of imports also increased by 39 percent, reaching USD4.351,0 million, as compared with the same period of previous year. The import of minerals reached USD976.0 million, in which the imports of oil products make up 83.5 percent. As of first nine months, Mongolia imported 1.184,9 thousand tons of oil products worth USD814.7 million.

In 2018, it is planned to extract 8.1 million barrel or 1.1 million tons of oil, accumulating MNT223.4 billion to the state budget. As of October 19, it has extracted 5.12 million barrel or 694 thousand tons of oil, which means 63.19 percent fulfillment of the plan. Moreover, 4.8. million barrel or 655 thousand tons of crude oil were exported. As of October 1, the oil export brought MNT176.46 billion to the state budget.