Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., the Canadian miner developing the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia with Rio Tinto Group, said it’s ready to start mine construction at the $4 billion copper and gold operation.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China has for the first time imported about 260 tons of coal from Mongolia. Officials at the local frontier station authority say Xinjiang is expected to annually import more than 2 million tons of resources, mainly coal, from Mongoliathrough the Takixken port, which will help promote the border trade and the region's economic development. The 260 tonnes of coal arrived in Xinjiang on Monday.

Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, A. Baldanjav, has been quoted by Reuters as saying on the sidelines of the China Mining Conference in Tianjin that Mongolia will select the winners of the highly contested Tavan Tolgoi coal mine stake before the end of 2009.

Chad Blewitt, CFO of IMMI LLC, provided presentation. It planned to mine 100 thousand tons of copper annually within 4 years. The company explained that it really doesn’t necessary to have railroad to export product to abroad, using case of its iron deposit in the West Australia. Over 1200 km long road was built to mine that deposit. 220 million tons of product is transported on that road annually. 

Copper prices are seen rising steadily to reach an average of USD2.86/lb in 2011, according to a poll released recently by the influential Chilean copper think-tank Cochilco. The poll of 19 industry experts calculated copper averaging USD2.68/lb next year with a possible high of USD3.15/lb. Cochilco's own forecast had prices averaging USD2.10/lb next year.