SOUTHGOBI SEES JUMP IN MONGOLIAN COAL EXPORTS TO CHINA

Ulaanbaatar, /MONTSAME/ Coal imports from Mongolia are expected to nearly double in 2010 from a year earlier, making Mongolia the third or fourth largest coal supplier to China, the top executive of SouthGobi Energy Resources Ltd has said.
Mongolia is likely to ship 12 million tonnes of coal to China this year, up from 8.5 million tonnes in 2009, Alexander Molyneux told Reuters on the sidelines of a Coaltrans conference.
But official statistics showed that China imported just over 6 million tonnes of coal from Mongolia in 2009. "We estimate that this year already about 3 million tonnes of coal has been sold from Mongolia to China," said Molyneux.
"People see Mongolia as an emerging exporter of coal to China, but nobody is aware how quickly it's becoming a reality."
Last year, Australia was the top supplier of coking coal to China, exporting more than 22.7 million tonnes in 2009, compared to Mongolia's nearly 4 million tonnes. Molyneux said Mongolia's coal exports to China this year will be predominantly coking coal.
SouthGobi -- which is 80 percent owned by Canada's Ivanhoe Mines -- owns the Ovoot Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, located about 40 km from the Chinese border and containing both thermal and metallurgical coal.
China's sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corp (CIC), is also a strategic investor in the company.
S.Batbayar