Coal Mine Development in South Gobi, Mongolia

摘要

Much attention is paid to Mongolia, particularly, South Gobi as a new source of coal. Many countries such as Japan, Korea, USA, as well as nearby China and Russia are very interested in large scale coal mine projects, namely, Tavan Tolgoi project in South Gobi area where affluent and high quality coal deposits for steaming and metallurgical use are underlain. There is, however, a bottle neck by poorly developed infrastructure in South Gobi, which has for a long time prevented from coal mine development there. A couple of new coal mines have already been developed and coal has been mined in South Gobi. Considering environmental impacts from development of coal mines, the Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Kyushu University (DEREKU) has started a joint research program with Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST).This paper describes some problems in development of coal mines in South Gobi, considering social, economical and environmental factors based on the field surveys.