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Foreign Correspondent: Nov 20

Foreign Correspondent learns how mining may impact on Mongolia's environment and nomadic herders.

Foreign Correspondent‘s China Correspondent Stephen McDonell and cameraman Rob Hill have travelled to the Mongolian Steppe to learn how mining may impact on the local environment and nomadic herders.

It once commanded empire that occupied an enormous swathe of the world, now the world wants a big slice of Mongolia. It’s boomtime in this isolated and undeveloped nation as global miners are racing to stake their claims on vast riches that rival Australia’s resources bounty. So, if you can’t beat ‘em, then join ‘em and local mining giant Rio Tinto and developer Leighton are right in the thick of it. But profound questions are being raised about the impact on environment, the proud traditions of nomadic herders and the ability of a small, unsophisticated government to deal with slick, lawyered-up multinationals.

Mongolia is the big new frontier in a resources rush that’s breath-taking in it’s scale and speed. And among the companies leading the charge to exploit the mineral riches are two Australian giants – miner Rio Tinto and developer Leighton.

Leighton is operating a large joint-venture coal mine in the Gobi desert while Rio Tinto is about to open one of the biggest copper mines on the planet. It will soon account for more than 30 percent of the country’s entire GDP .

“Some of the optimistic geologists we have say that this business could run for up to 100 years. Those more conservatively say 50 years plus”. Cameron McRae, Rio Tinto.

The Rio Tinto deal means the company keeps a large controlling stake in the operation and cedes the Mongolian government a 34 percent stake. That has provoked widespread controversy and a degree of resentment among locals who are worried about where the benefits of Mongolia’s resource wealth will go. There’s concern the government is ill-equipped to strike complex and sophisticated mining deals in the national interest.

“People have different views on that deal. My feeling is Mongolia made a political decision. After all the deal is a financial transaction and whether it’s really beneficial to Mongolia I have many doubt about that.” Dorshteshi – Responsible Mining Initiative

It’s not only the deals that are sounding alarm bells. Environmentalists worry that the mining push has come so fast and so aggressively that proper checks and balances are not in place.

“Most of the tourists come to Mongolia because they want to see that pristine open space blue sky but what if we couldn’t offer it anymore” Ono Batkhuumongol Ecology Centre

The other big question is – how will the spread of mining and its use of scarce natural resources like water impact the range of the proud Mongolian nomadic herders?

Tuesday, 20 November at 8pm on ABC1.

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