My name is Oyuntungalag Otgonbayar. I am 49 years old. I live in Mandal sub-province of Selenge province. I have a daughter, a son and 10 grandchildren. Since I was 30, I started working and living in the artisanal mining sector. It all started when artisanal gold mining was the only way to make a living but not yet formalized. At that time, without any regulation on labor safety, taxes, and insurance, everyone was involved in illegal illegal mining on their own, and every household used mercury to extract gold, and mercury used to be sold on store shelves.
At that time, I ran a commodity market, bought gold from people, gave it to the next level merchant, and started making a profit from price difference. In this way, I’ve established contact with the public individual miners and borrowed start-up capital, such as gasoline, fuel, sacks, electricity, food, and cash, when they went for gold.
When the individual miners come down from the mountain, they come home, grind the gold stone with an iron rod, bring the hand-washed gold and paid their debt. The next time they go mining, they will get another loan. That is the way we’ve cooperated and helped each other’s business.
In fact, the government tried to stop artisanal miners time to time. However, this sector, which is directly related to human life, cannot be stopped directly and immediately. When there is mining in Mongolia, there would be economically inefficient remnants for industrial mining. Therefore, the government's approval of regulations on the proper use of waste has changed the lives of many people. But now that the procedure is more closely regulated and approved, it is hoped that better results will be achieved in this area.
Prior to the current Government Resolution No. 151 of 2017 on artisanal and small-scale mining, I’ve moved to Zuunkharaa aka Mandal sub-province with my husband and 5-year-old child to rental house in order to purchase gold.
I would go to the market in the morning to buy gold, and in the evening I would go home, cook for my children, and take a roundtrip in a train to sell the gold. I would sell the gold I had bought during the day in the evening. I used to make a profit of 1500-2000 MNT from one cen /3.73g/ of gold. In this way, the foundation of today is laid in the effort of trading gold in the morning and in the evening.
At the time, trading in gold was also difficult, especially for women. For many years later, I lived next door to landlord, then I bought an 8*8 m2 grocery store. Since 2004, we have been buying gold in shop and selling it to city merchants.
In order to expand our operations, we’ve purchased Russian vehicle Gas-69, and gold miners who were in constant contact were put in their cars and taken to a placer gold mine 15-20 km from the soum center.
For many years, we worked day and night from morning till night to help the gold miners at the mining site and buy the gold they mined. Since the establishment of the ASMNF in 2013, artisanal miners have been formalized and partnerships built.
In addition, a number of mills have been set up to process ore mined from the main gold deposit, and artisanal miners have begun to grind gold in large mills. At that time the use of mercury was decreased compared to the previous period, but other services were lacking too. For example, artisanal miners who were tired after mining, used to work in dump cold workshops without water, food, and restrooms.
Artisanal miners are human beings after all, and the idea to improve the services provided to people was born and a complex of facilities was built and put into operation, with such as a rest room, a bath, hot food, tea, and a mill with a clean environment.
Many foreign and domestic guests have repeatedly visited and shared our experience as an exemplary ore processing plant, which provides our comprehensive mill services. We were able to create a good experience. Most importantly, artisanal miners are satisfied that artisanal miners who returned from hard work could have a comprehensive service area between ore processing.
In 2013, we founded a company called Buyan Ji, which operated a gold shop and a grocery store, and later expanded into a hotel, car wash, car parts store, and jewelry store with a bank loan. I think it has helped many people who have worked in the artisanal mining sector to find jobs and improve their living standards.
It has had many positive effects on society compared to the time when the artisanal mining sector was about to be shut down. I think you have to do everything with your full heart, then you don't have to work for profit. When you put your good intentions and invest on your work, things will have a beautiful energy, and attract more people along with it.
My principle is that when you help someone, you help from the pure heart, and when you work, you do it fullheartedly. My husband, son and son-in-law, all of whom have been working together, have been working in artisanal mining for many years. My son has been involved in artisanal mining since he was 5 years old. When we drove up to the mountain in Gas-69 car, I would take my son with me all the time. He’s well aware of how people mine gold, how they buy it, how they work hard, therefore my son and daughter grew up in the hotspots of artisanal mining. Now my son is in charge of artisanal mining partnership.
My son wants the government to support the possibility of carrying out environmentally friendly activities in the future using modern solutions, clear legal environment and technological advances. I think God sees people who cares for other people. If a person goes for gold mining, as he is the head of the household, and there’s always a lot of people live on his support, such as his wife, children, parents and grandparents. I believe that, organizing such people and supporting the artisanal miners in accordance with the law is a real task for the government to help the people.
Having worked in artisanal mining for 20 years, I have always dreamed of developing this sector in the future. My family and I, built our life in this sector, and my life is inextricably linked to ASM sector, so in the future, in order to provide comprehensive services in this sector, we established Manlai Mandal partnership, built a blasting warehouse for a licensed company to exploit the main gold deposit, and handed it to the state commission, which is in the process of approval.
I think that we will do the same with this kind of construction, create a very good working environment for artisanal miners, and start our new work with the same energy. I am grateful to the ASMNF and Trafigura foundation, which has invested a lot of foreign investment in the right things, and has done a lot of advocacy work to make a positive change towards government and public.
If there wasn’t ASMNF, there wouldn’t be anyone to protect the right of ASMers, we would have been discriminated and would have been thrown into a path that could no longer function. For 15 years, SDC, Trafigura foundation and all the other donors has been working with the ASMNF to formalize artisanal and small-scale miners, reduce the impact of illegal mining, differentiate them, change negative attitudes, and gain recognition by the authorities.
Personally, I am proud to be involved in the artisanal mining sector. We are proud to have created so many work places and provided jobs for more than 20 local people. When the epidemic situation improves, it will be possible to open a hotel and provide jobs for another 5-6 people.
Currently, 4 people have been employed in car washes, 2 in auto repair shops, 1 in auto repair shops, 1 in gold and silver jewelry shops and pawnshops, and 26 in the ore processing plant. We have created a workplace that meets the standard requirements of the workplace and immersive. My husband, daughter, son-in-law, son and daughter-in-law are all involved in this business. We trade in gold under license from the Financial Regulatory Commission in accordance with the regulations of traders of precious metals, precious stones or articles made of them. We deliver gold to the Bank of Mongolia, and in the future we want to refine gold to produce jewelry and supply the national brand to the world market. With fewer steps, we can offer local people jewelry that is cheaper than the market price, and artisanal miners are the inseparable resource of our work. We have the advantage of submit gold extracted from our ore processing plant, directly to Bank of Mongolia without selling it through a private trader.
In the future, ASMers’ contribution to the economy will be transparent if the Bank of Mongolia starts to register gold miners in the name of artisanal and small-scale miners, not as individuals.
My current well-being is inextricably linked to artisanal mining. By developing, formalizing and organizing artisanal mining in the right way, many people will be provided with jobs and the quality of life of many households will improve.
At the moment, the lives of artisanal miners are very difficult due to the current stagnation of relevant artisanal mining regulations and delayed process of the government. There is a tendency which is likely the sector would to move illegal and unorganized state without regulation as before.
When the ASM sector wasn’t formalized and organized, the individual miners who used to have a hard time would spend their earned money form gold, to drink alcohol and spend on the wrong things. The miners had no basic financial education and no understanding of savings. They did not know the benefits of working together.
Of course, working it the ASM sector as a women is challenging, for example a small percentage of the mined gold was shared with female miners. Although women lack of physical power, they would work along with men, prepare and take care of tea and food, make purchases, help as much as they can, and sometimes even take part in mining.
Our Mongolian women are very diligent, some go to the mines and work in the mines, and some cook and participate on a regular basis. Most single mothers tend to work hard jobs.
Instead, as a formalized and worked together as a partnership in artisanal and small-scale mining, we were able to ensure equal distribution of labor, equal pay, social security, health and personal income taxes, to contribute to the local economy, and to rehabilitate the mined land and hand over to the authorities before taking the next place.
In the future, we will use our income from the artisanal and small-scale mining sector to support the development of our community members' family businesses.
