Rio Tinto finds its mega-mine stuck between two Mongolian strongmen
Ulaanbaatar | Inside Mongolia's cavernous parliament, politicians huddle in clusters, rushing between benches and locked-door meetings. A historic confidence vote looms over Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, whose grip on power is slipping amid corruption allegations and a populist backlash – sending tremors through the country's most important foreign investment: the vast Oyu Tolgoi copper mine run by Rio Tinto.
The ASX-listed giant has already weathered two decades of turbulence in Mongolia. But the current political crisis – compounded by allegations levelled at the company and a fractured government – threatens to derail its most ambitious expansion, a multibillion-dollar underground mine that would make Oyu Tolgoi one of the world's five biggest copper producers.
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