Technical Cooperation with Mongolia

Nomads in western Mongolia Source: BGR

Mongolia is a sparsely populated, landlocked country with underdeveloped infrastructure and extreme continental climate. It belongs to the few states, where peaceful democratic changes and economic opening are taking place simultaneously since 1990. Extraction of mineral resources and animal husbandry are the basis of the Mongolian economy. However, the high volatility of the international commodity market poses a strong challenge for the country, since price fluctuations have a direct impact on the Mongolian economy with more than 80% of the total export being produced by the mineral resources sector. Therefore, the currently low raw material prices lead to a severely slowed economic growth in Mongolia after high growth rates for many years.

Alongside the economic challenges and chances, the increase in mining activities at the same time contributes to a rising conflict potential over the use of the important natural resources water, forest and land. Therefore, the most affected rural population demands effective protection of surface waters and renaturation of grazing lands.

The German development cooperation focuses at present on three main areas which are “Energy Efficiency”, “Sustainable Mineral Resources Management” and “Biodiversity”. The support of Mongolian efforts to reform the economic sector helps creating a market-friendly environment and enhancing Mongolia’s competitive abilities. Beyond the three focal points mentioned above, the German government supports Mongolian efforts to minimize environmental damages caused by mining and to develop a responsible, social and environmental compatible mining sector.

The German-Mongolian Cooperation in the geo-sector started already in the 1960ies. The BGR is working in Mongolia since 1992 especially in the framework of technical cooperation financed by the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Main area of cooperation is the support of the government institutions in the geo-sector. Applied methods are mainly training, development of processes and practices, and modernization of infrastructure.

Mongolian partners for BGR are and have been the Ministry of Mining and its subordinate bodies such as the Mineral Resources Authority and the Central Geological Laboratory, as well as the State Special Inspection Agency, with the Mongolian mining inspectorate, which reports directly to the vice prime minister.

The currently active project “Capacity Development in Mineral Resources Economics of the Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia (MRAM)” supports the state mining authority of Mongolia (MRAM), in order to increase their capacity as professional service provider for the Mongolian mineral resources sector. Hereby the long-standing cooperation with MRAM and its predecessor institutions respectively is continued. Earlier activities have been e.g. 2008–2011 the economic evaluation of selected mineral deposits (Investor’s handbook on industrial minerals and selected rare metals in Mongolia) or in 2011–2013 as a module of the “Integrated Mineral Resources Initiative IMRI” the organization of special trainings and elaboration of studies on selected mineral raw materials (gold, rare earth elements).

From 2005 til 2015 the Mongolian mining inspection, a department within the General Agency for Specialized Inspection (GASI), was supported by the technical cooperation project “Environmental protection in mining”. With a small follow-up project for the implementation of the developed mining inspection information system the support to GASI is continued until 2017.

The long-term cooperation with the Central Geological Laboratory of Mongolia (CGL), which already started in 1997, successfully concluded in 2015. Within the scope of the 4 projects the CGL was supported by assisting the buildup of an effective gold analysis laboratory, enhancing their instrumental analytics and introducing market–economic management methods, elaborating certified reference material that are traded internationally, and qualifying as organizer for proficiency testing. Three international accreditations confirm the achieved quality standards

Within the Development Cooperation Programme „Sustainable Mineral Resources Management“, the BGR cooperates closely with the GIZ and PTB.

Ongoing Project: