“A working group constituted from officials at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Petroleum Authority are currently working on developing a methodology to define strategic mineral deposits,” Gankhuyag said.

“The Financial Regulatory Committee is also working on developing the standard which is very similar to the Canadian initiated NI 43101 [an openness and transparency report in the mining industry] in cooperation with the Mongolian Stock Exchange,” he added.

During the first Panel discussion, of the conference members expressed their active involvement and assistance in order to help and build a positive business environment in Mongolia.

Mrs. Deborah Davis, Managing Director, Lehman, Lee and Xu explained 18 issues in the newly revised mineral law that are most important to be clarified with close cooperation among business runners, such as a lack of clarity on the definition of strategic mineral deposit, tender processes, increasement of government ownership and license holding.

Government officials were again present to discuss concerns of investors and explained government policies.

“It was calculated that MNT 90 billion is to be generated from the windfall profits tax. By the first 8 months period, about MNT 40 billion was collected and over MNT 30 billion was generated from the Erdenet copper mining factory. But only MNT 1.6 billion was from gold mining,” said L.Zorig, Director General of the National Taxation Authority during the 2nd Panel discussion.

The Conference will continue tomorrow with the third panel discussion on Legislation, Politics and Parties and with Roundtable discussions which will be hosted by M. Enkhsaikhan, Deputy Premier of Mongolia.