Ulaan Ovoo Coal Mine

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Ulaan Ovoo Coal Mine (Улаан-Овоо) is a coal mine in Tüshig, Selenge, Mongolia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name Location Coordinates (WGS 84)
Ulaan Ovoo Coal Mine Tüshig, Tüshig, Selenge, Mongolia 50.317778, 104.973611 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status Status Detail Opening Year Closing Year
Mothballed[1][2] 2010 2039 (planned)[1]

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.
Capacity (Mtpa) Production (Mtpa) Year of Production Mine Type Mining Method Mine Size (km2) Mine Depth (m) Workforce Size
3[3] Surface Open Pit 60* *

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt) Year of Total Reserves Recorded Total Resources (Mt) Coalfield Coal Type Coal Grade Primary Consumer/ Destination
174 Bituminous Thermal Darkhan power station

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner Parent Company Headquarters
Silver Elephant Mining Corp Silver Elephant Mining Corp [100%] Canada

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September supplement.

Background

The Ulaan Ovoo Coal Mine is an operating surface coal mine in Tüshig, Mongolia. The Ulaan Ovoo mine is an open-cut coal mine in Mongolia owned by Prophecy Coal Corp., a Canadian mining company.[4]

According to the website of mine owner Prophecy Coal, "Exploration drilling work was performed on the deposit during the late 1970s by the Mongolian Ministry of Geology and Energy and again from 1993-1997 by Erdenet, a Mongolian-Russian joint venture mining and processing company."[4]

In 2006, the mine area had an estimated of 174 million tonnes of measured resources, 34 million tonnes of indicated category, and 36 million tonnes of inferred. Production began in 2010. The coal is trucked 120km to to the Sukhbaatar rail siding, which is then is transported by rail to Russian and Mongolian customers.[4][5]

Production

Prophecy produced approximately 500,000 tons of coal between 2012 and 2014 from the mine before putting the mine on standby. The company made deliveries from the mine between 2016 and 2017 to select customers. An undisclosed lessee company entered a lease agreement with Prophecy in October 2018 to operate the mine, which is valid for three years. Mining activity was resumed at the site in March 2019, following the signing of the agreement.[6] However, operations at the mine briefly stopped in April and May due to the late approval of the environmental plan, which wasn't issued until June 2019.[7]

Silver Elephant halted production at the mine in May 2023 due to a decrease in thermal coal prices and scheduled equipment repairs.In September 2023, Silver Elephant Mining has secured the necessary renewed licence for the detailed environmental impact assessment (DEIA) to restart operations.[8] In 2023 the coal mine produced 37,885 tonnes (0.037 Mt).[9]

Mine ownership

The mine was owned by Mongolia Mid Asia International (MMAI) until 2005, followed by Red Hill until 2010. Prophecy Development Corporation assumed 100% ownership of the project in 2010.[6]

In March 2020, Prophecy Coal renamed itself Silver Elephant Mining Corp.[10][11]

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20240718173432/https://miningdataonline.com/property/4554/Ulaan-Ovoo-Mine.aspx. Archived from the original on 18 July 2024. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20240718173449/https://www.silverelef.com/pdf/ELEF-Q5-2023-FS-FINAL-SEDAR.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2024. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20240723012434/https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol3/2019/myb3-2019-mongolia.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2024. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Prophecy Coal Corp., "Ulaan Ovoo (Coal Mongolia)", Prophecy Coal website, accessed September 2020
  5. "Strategy on strategic mineral missing," Mongolia Mining Journal, 2012-09-27
  6. 6.0 6.1 "Ulaan Ovoo Coal Project," Mining Technology, accessed Sep 2020
  7. "Prophecy’s Ulaan Ovoo Achieves Record Monthly Coal Production 37,800 tonnes in Mongolia", Silver Elephant Mining Corp, July 9, 2019.
  8. "Silver Elephant obtains license renewal to restart Mongolian coal mine". akipress.com. September 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. "SILVER ELEPHANT MINING CORP. (THE "COMPANY" OR "SILVER ELEPHANT") ANNUAL INFORMATION FORM YEAR ENDED MARCH 31, 2024" (PDF). silverelef.com. June 2024. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 90 (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. Silver Elephant Mining Corp.: Name Change Complete from Prophecy. "ELEF" Commences Trading on TSX on March 19, 2020, Yahoo! Finance, 18 Mar. 2020.
  11. Silver Elephant Mining Corp. website, accessed Apr. 2021.