Mine, all mine
- ️Sat Jan 21 2012
The country that is likely to grow faster than any other in the next decade, and how it is changing, for better or worse
Jan 21st 2012|Oyu Tolgoi and Ulaanbaatar
“GOIN' to OT?” drawls Andy, a burly tattooed man with that worldly air common to those who have done time in the American army. The gate at Incheon airport in South Korea is packed with travellers, mainly Mongolian expatriates on their way home, waiting to board a flight to Ulaanbaatar. Andy's is a fair guess as to the destination of one of the few other Western passengers. “OT”—Oyu Tolgoi, or “Turquoise Hill”—is in the middle of nowhere, a desolate spot in the Gobi desert, another hour-and-a-half's flight south of Ulaanbaatar (inevitably, “UB”). But it is the site of the biggest foreign-investment project in Mongolia, a copper-and-gold mine that is springing up at a remarkable speed and is expected, by 2020, to account for one-third of Mongolia's GDP.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Mine, all mine”
From the January 21st 2012 edition
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