Mongolia has rich mineral resources and exploitation of these has been increasing in the transition period to the market economy. There are over 8,000 deposits of 440 different minerals in Mongolia, of which about 600 deposits and outcrops of resources have been determined. A total of 181 gold deposits, 5 copper molybdenum deposits, a lead deposit, 5 tin, 10 steel, iron, 4 silver, magnesium, mica, 3 gypsum, 3 asbect, 3 graphite, 2 bitumen, 42 coal and brown coal, phosphorus, 42 fluorspar, 12 salt, 10 sodium sulphate, 6 semi-precious stone, 9 crystal, about 30 underground water deposits and 205 construction materials, including stone, sand, gravel, limestone, marble, plaster, cement and mineral pigment's raw materials are found. Exploration works were conducted in about 70 percent of the deposits, and the resources of the deposits were evaluated from an industrial mining point of view.
Over 200 of the aforementioned deposits are being exploited now, of which 24 are non-ferrous metal deposits, 111 are gold, 34 coal, 15 salt and about 50 mineral deposits. The joint Mongolian-Russian Monrostsvetmet Company is exploiting four of the biggest mines, which have the capacity to extract 600,000 tons of fluorite a year, seven exploration parts, and a factory with the capacity to enrich and process 500,000-600,000 tons of fluorite annually. A gold mine with 250 litres capacity in two floating drags, which have a power to wash 1 million tons of sand a year, open mining with the annual capacity to extract 100,000 tons of coal and a geological exploration group are operating in the company.
The company worked with a goal of increasing the mining production's output and attained the proper results. The production of molybdenum concentrate, cement, lime and production construction, as well as mining of gold and silver were up. Currently, a total of 94,682 hectares of square have been given to companies and enterprises under 527 licences to exploit Mongolia's minerals, of which 28,000 hectares are being exploited for the mining production. An average of 86 million cubic meters of earth moving was conducted each year and 133 million cubic meter of water was exploited. 40 percent of the total consumed water was re-cycled and 35 percent of the earth moving and 70 percent of the water consumption are allotted to Erdenet ore-dressing plant and other coal-mines.
