1st Edition
The Impact of Mining Lifecycles in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan Political, Social, Environmental and Cultural Contexts
This volume investigates how mining affects societies and communities in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.
As ex-Soviet states, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan share history, culture and transitions to democracy. Most importantly, both are mineral-rich countries on China’s frontier and epi-centres of resource extraction. This volume examines challenges communities in these countries encounter on the long journey through resource exploration, extraction and mine closure. The book is organised into three related sections that travel from mine licensing and instigation to early anticipation of benefit through the realisation of social and environmental impacts to finite issues such as jobs, monitoring, dispute resolution and reclamation. Most originally, each chapter will include a final section entitled "Notes from the field" that presents the voice of in-country researchers and stakeholders. These sections will provide local contextual knowledge on the chapter’s theme by practitioners from Mongolia and Central Asia. The volume thereby offers a distinctively grounded perspective on the tensions and benefits of mining in this dynamic region. Using Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan as case studies, the volume reflects on the evolving challenges communities and societies encounter with resource extraction worldwide.
The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of mining and natural resource extraction, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.
Chapter 1. Mining Lifecycles in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan
Troy Sternberg, Kemel Toktomushev and Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo
Part I: Exploring Mining – When Mining Comes to Town – Initiating Mining Infrastructure
Chapter 2. A Pesky Story of Chinese Mining in Kyrgyzstan
Kemel Toktomushev
Chapter 3. Contestations over Mining Policies and Mineral Ownership in Mongolia from the Socialist Period to the Present
Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo
Chapter 4. Gold mining conflicts in Kyrgyzstan: when Context and Culture Matters
Aimeerim Tursalieva
Chapter 5. Filling a Hole? Compensation for Mining-Induced Losses in the South Gobi
Ariell Ahearn and Bayarsaikhan Namsrai
Part II: Extracting information - Community Engagement with Mining
Chapter 6. Social Impact Assessment in Mongolia: Development and Trends
Baigalmaa Purevsuren, Tegshbayar Darambazar and Purevdulam Lkhagvasuren
Chapter 7. Mining Melodrama in Mongolia: a Gurvantes Case Study
Tserennadmid Mijiddorj and Tsendsuren Purevsuren
Chapter 8. Does the Transparent Information Empower Communities? Natural Resource Data Accessibility and use Practices in Mongolia
Delgermaa Boldbaatar
Chapter 9. Resource Extraction, Environmental Concerns and Social License to Operate in Kyrgyzstan
Rahat Sabyrbekov and Indra Overland
Chapter 10. Mining Shadows on Mongolia's Environment and Heritage
Erdenebuyan Enkhjargal
Part III: Rehabilitating Land and Society
Chapter 11. Reclamation: Lack of Awareness and post-mining Mismanagement in Kyrgyzstan
Almaz Tchoroev
Chapter 12. After Life-of-Mine: Rethinking Mine Closure
Stephen Lezak and Gantulga Munkherdene
Chapter 13. Looking Back and Looking Forward – Conclusions on Reducing Site Level Conflict Associated with Mining
Jill Shankleman
Biography
Troy Sternberg is a senior researcher in the School of Geography at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the editor of multiple books, including Arid Land Systems (2019) and Societies and Climate Hazard Crises in Asia (Routledge, 2017).
Kemel Toktomushev is a research fellow at the University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan. He is the author of Kyrgyzstan: Regime Security and Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2016).
Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo is a director of the International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations under the auspices of UNESCO. He is also a lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, National University of Mongolia.