ERDENET MONGOLIAN COPPER MINE

INTRODUCTION

Erdenet Mining Corporation (EMC or Erdenet) was established in accordance with an agreement between governments of Mongolia and the former Soviet Union. EMC is a Mongolian-Russian joint venture, 51% of shares is owned by the State Property Committee of Mongolian Government and 49% of shares is owned by the Russian Government.
The “Erdenetiin Ovoo”, or “Treasure Hill” copper/molybdenum deposit was discovered in the 1960’s by Mongolian and Czechoslovak geologists and was developed with Soviet assistance in the 1970’s.

The concentrator first went into operation in 1978 with capacity of 4 million tons of throughput and gradually increased up to 24 million in 1996.

The open pit was pre-stripped to its ultimate limits and the workings are 2.3km by 1.5km at ground level. Current strip ratio is about 0.24/1.0, and the mine produces about 25Mt/a of ore at a grade of 0.63% copper and 0.019%Mo and about 6 million cubic metres of lowgrade waste comprising oxide, secondary sulphide and primary sulphide material. The low-grade waste mineralogy will shift from mixed primary and secondary sulphides toward
primary sulphide only as the pit becomes deeper.

Ovoot Tolgoi Coal Mine

Ovoot Tolgoi is the company's flagship coal mine development project.SouthGobi Energy Resources has been issued a Permit to Mine and commenced open-pit coal production in April 2008 and now is selling coal to customers in China.The Ovoot Tolgoi open-pit mine is located 45 kilometres north of the Mongolian border with China, the world's largest consumer of coal.

Shovel R-994 loading TR-100 truks

One day of Ovoot coal mine

New trucks

Dump truck TR-100
Blast hole drill DM-45

Kennecott copper mine

Company History

There are really two histories of Kennecott…one began in Utah and the other in Alaska.

The Utah version began on June 4, 1903 when the original Utah Copper Company was created to mine and process low grade copper ore found in a mountain in Bingham Canyon, about 25 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Most experts of that day said the company would never make money: the ore grade was too low, only 39pounds of copper per ton of ore.

Steam shovels began working on the mountain in 1906, and for the next 100 years shovels, trains and trucks converted that mountain into the world famous Bingham Canyon Mine, a huge open pit copper mine that is more than three-quarters of a mile deep and more than 2 3/4 miles wide across the top, and it is still growing

The Alaska version began in 1910 when the newly formed Kennecott Mines Company started mining a very rich copper deposit in the Wrangell St. Elias Mountains about 300 miles northwest of Juneau.

In 1915, Kennecott Mines became Kennecott Copper Corporation, which purchased a 25 percent interest in the Utah Copper Company and acquired all assets and property in 1936.

In 1947, Utah Copper Company was dissolved and became the Utah Copper Division of Kennecott Copper Corporation. In 1981, Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO) purchased Kennecott and in 1987 British Petroleum bought SOHIO’s interests. In 1989, RTZ Corporation, now known as Rio Tinto, became the owner of Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation.

Kennecott has been a leading producer of copper and valuable by-products, gold, silver and molybdenum from the ores of the Bingham Canyon Mine.

Big heavy equipment in the world