Mongolia urges transparency as Rio Tinto seeks control of giant Oyu Tolgoi project
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Rio Tinto and the Mongolian government in January reached an agreement to end a long-running dispute over a
Soon after, Rio proposed to buy out the remaining Turquoise Hill stake for about
"As a shareholder of Oyu Tolgoi, we are asking Rio Tinto that this project be transparent and have a proper management structure and without that it doesn't matter who owns the shares," said Tserenbat Namsrai, chief executive of Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC, the Mongolian state-owned firm.
"If Rio succeeds in its bid to buy Turquoise Hill it is good for us because the decision making will be shortened, this is the good side (of the deal)."
Speaking to Reuters in an interview, Nagi Otgonshar,
"At the end of the day, we ask Rio Tinto to be transparent ... previously not enough information has been shared with the government of
"This is a heavily scrutinized project by the public and being able to share that information with the people of
"We think copper is the future and we would like to be one of the top players to attract more investors and OT paves the road for further investments," he said.
Namsrai said discussions were now underway to bring forward the production date from the current target of mid-2023.
"With the write-off of the
To ensure
Namsrai said COVID restrictions in
"The announced budget increase is ...probably likely to go over, although it is difficult to say by how much," Namsrai said.
(Reporting by