Mineral-rich Ulan Bator is on the cusp of a mining boom that has led investors to describe Mongolia as
the 'Kuwait of Central Asia'
Posted on 04/11/2010 9:36:12 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
If there was a competition to find the ugliest city on Earth, then the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator would be the leading contender for the title. The combination of grim, Soviet-style concrete high-rises, rambling slum-shanties and towering coal-fired power plants belching out smoke over the city reeks of the depression and decay that was a legacy of decades of communist rule.
Mineral-rich Ulan Bator is on the cusp of a mining boom that has led investors to describe Mongolia as
the 'Kuwait of Central Asia'
But look more closely and it is clear that change is afoot in this mineral-rich former Soviet acolyte which is on the cusp of a mining boom that has led investors to describe Mongolia as the "Kuwait of Central Asia". The augurs of new wealth are already visible on Ulan Bator's dowdy streets – luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Armani have opened branches in the past year, catering to customers in Range Rovers and Porsche Cayennes. And in the city's Grand Khaan Irish Pub the vanguard of the coming investment boom can be found quaffing pints and discussing deals – suited diplomats and investment bankers rubbing shoulders with rough-necked mining engineers and their suspiciously pretty local "girlfriends".
For decades the global resources industry has had its eye on Mongolia's huge mineral deposits – it has world-class reserves of gold, copper, coal, fluorspar, silver, uranium and tungsten – but has been deterred by a combination of corruption and political instability.
That all changed last year, however, with the election of a pro-business Democratic Party government that is now, albeit cautiously, welcoming foreign investors to partake in a boom that the government hopes will triple the nation's GDP in the next decade.
The catalyst for investors was
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Right behind Detroit.
Are there still any "belching smokestacks" or any kind of industry going on in Detroit? I bet there are a lot fewer abandoned junk boats and abandoned houses there than in Detroit. The whole city should be fenced off like something out of Escape from New York.
"reeks of the depression and decay that was a legacy of decades of communist rule. "
That means they were not Communists.
"The catalyst for investors was a decision last August by Mongolia's new president, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, to scrap a punitive 68pc windfall tax on copper and gold profits imposed in 2005 by the previous communist-leaning government. Within months the government had also finalised a deal with the Canadian-listed Ivanhoe Mines to develop the $5bn (£3.3bn) Oyu Tolgoi (OT) copper and gold reserve, a Manhattan-sized deposit which will take 60 years to exhaust."
yitbos
Goldbug ping — a back-to-basics article for a nice change, no tales of empty vaults, price manipulation, car wrecks...
“For decades the global resources industry has had its eye on Mongolia’s huge mineral deposits – it has world-class reserves of gold, copper, coal, fluorspar, silver, uranium and tungsten – but has been deterred by a combination of corruption and political instability.”
Mail me to get on or off the Free Republic Goldbug Ping List.
I hear the drug industry is doing very well, thank you.
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