While the government in Ulan Bator hopes to use growing mineral output to drag its largely pastoral economy into the 21st century, many lawmakers are wary about turning Mongolia into “Minegolia” - a choking, resource-dependent blackspot tearing itself apart to deliver raw materials to China. The price has fallen back to around $1,636 but gold remains at historically high levels after a decade-long rally.Ĭhina has certainly driven the gold rush in Mongolia - from the giant $6 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project currently being developed by Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto to the makeshift holes that honeycomb the hills and valleys of Bornuur. Spot international gold prices hit a record high of $1,920.30 an ounce in September as investors bought the metal as a safe haven amid uncertainties surrounding the euro zone and its debt. While Beijing doesn’t publish full import figures, deliveries from Hong Kong hit 428 tonnes in 2011, three times more than a year earlier. “But we dug for three years to reach the vein.”Ĭhina’s annual gold output reached a record 361 tonnes last year, but demand continues to outstrip supply. “It took us a week to dig this out,” Khorloo said, holding the nugget. For thousands of dirt-poor herders, the soaring prices alone are enough to justify years of harassment, abuse and hard labour. In the last five years, dwindling legal gold supplies and a spike in black market demand from China have made work much more lucrative for Mongolia’s “ninja miners” - so named because of the large green pans carried on their backs that look like turtle shells. Near the plant, separated from Mongolia’s capital, Ulan Bator, by 100 km of rocky pasture and mostly unpaved road, life has remained largely unchanged since Genghis Khan’s “golden horde” rampaged across Asia nine centuries ago.īut Khorloo is a member of a new horde of at least 60,000 herders, farmers and urban unemployed trying to extract the riches buried in the vast steppe with metal detectors, shovels and home-made smelters. Khorloo, 65, and her sons spent the day scrutinising half a dozen CCTV screens as workers at the Bornuur gold processing plant whittled 1.2 tonnes of ore down to 123 grams of pure gold that could earn the family as much as $6,000. We'll also be featuring the most original and fun bridge designs that are submitted, making it easier for you to find the ones that are worth the challenge.BORNUUR, Mongolia, April 19 (Reuters) - In a hot, concrete hut filled with acetylene fumes, an elderly Mongolian miner struggles to contain her excitement as she plucks a sizzling inch-long nugget of gold from a grubby cooling pot and raises it to the light. Go wild and create the most complex bridge the world has ever seen, or just an absurd creation that pushes the mechanics of the game in a new direction, and if you're feeling like it publish your design online as a puzzle level on the Workshop for everyone to try and solve!ĭownload hundreds of extra levels from the Workshop! What would an awesome bridge-builder game be without an equally awesome Sandbox? Levels get increasingly challenging from the engineering aspect and restrictions are also imposed on the resources you can use to build your bridge. Check out the Online Gallery at !Įnjoy hours of bridge-building fun with loads of levels to solve, ranging from simple light car bridges to multi-deck draw-bridges and jumps, just to name a few! Unleash your engineering creativity with an engaging and fresh bridge-building simulator with all the bells and whistles.Įnjoy hours of physics-based puzzle solving in the Campaign and then jump in the Sandbox to create your own bridge designs and puzzles.Ĭhallenge friends and the rest of the Steam Workshop community to solve your puzzles and download more levels submitted by other players.
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