Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, October 25, 2016

Aim Texas Trading, LLC Overseas Management Group has attended at a tender in providing consultancy services for preparation of Regional Environmental Assessment (REA) and Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for Flow Regulation of Orkhon River and Construction of Reservoir Complex Project.

The Government of Mongolia has received financing from the World Bank, toward the cost of Mining Infrastructure Investment Support Project (MINIS), and intends to apply part of proceeds for consulting services.

Analysis of least significant differences revealed that most water quality parameters were within comparable low levels in both developed and developing countries. The dissolved metals concentrations were found to be similar and below those of water standards except for manganese and cadmium at every sampling point, and lead in Erdenet, Mongolia.

Conservation of water quality is inherently tied to watershed management. Efforts to protect Lake Baikal have increasingly focused on the Selenge River, a major tributary, with more than half its watershed area in Mongolia. Placer gold mining in Mongolia has the potential to load total suspended sediment (TSS), and total phosphorus (TP) into Lake Baikal and destroy spawning areas for the endangered Taimen salmon (Hucho taimen taimen). This work describes water quality assessments performed from 2001 to 2003 on Mongolian tributaries to the Selenge River.

The Selenge River is the largest single inflow to Lake Baikal and is a major factor influencing the water quality of the lake. Of the total watershed area for the Selenge River Basin (447,000 km2), 66% is within Mongolia. Recent and accelerating placer gold mining activity within the floodplains of Mongolian rivers has been observed to introduce large quantities of fine sediment into the water.

Selenge River Basin