Copper mining in Mongolia
Copper mining in Mongolia is a major industry and source of income for the country. There are only two companies that produce copper concentrate, Erdenet Mining Corporation, a Mongolian-Russian joint venture, and the Oyu Tolgoi mine, a joint venture between Rio Tinto Group, Turquoise Hill Resources, and the Government of Mongolia. Until 2010 copper was Mongolia's largest export. Reserves Mongolia is ranked 12th in the world for copper reserves. The south Gobi Desert alone has an estimated of 35 million tonnes of copper. Operations Erdenet Erdenet has been operation since 1978 as a joint project between Mongolia and Russia. The mine produced copper concentrate with molybdenum. Over the years the output of grade copper decreased with increasing depth of the mine. This was proposed to be compensated by manufacturing copper cathode which was priced higher. The estimated ore reserve was 1.54 billion tons. The copper concentrate production rate of 130,000 tons was envisaged by Erdent. Erdenet was still Mongolia's sole producer of copper, and accounted for 14% of Mongolia's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007. Copper from Erdenet was Mongolia's largest export until 2010 until it was bypassed by coal. While the mine has been exporting copper concentrate since production