Tax revenue from Mongolia’s mining: US$330 per Mongolian

With a population of 2.8 million people, Mongolia collected US $330per person from its oil and mining resources, shows the country's 2010 EITI report that was released on Tuesday 8 May.

The report released by Prime Minister Mr Batbold reveals that the government of Mongolia collected a total of US $913,8 million in taxes and other payments from the top tax paying companies in 2010.

Shedding light on payments to environmental rehabilitation

Mongolia is part of a global trend to require additional disclosure from the companies as part of their EITI , and going beyond the minimum requirements.

Now the extractive companies operating in Mongolia are also disclosing environmental rehabilitation transfers to the government and real expenses.

These flows are included in their EITI report as a means of making companies accountable for how they manage the environmental aspects of mining activity.

Mongolia has for the first time disclosed the list of the current holders of production and exploration licenses covered in the report, together with production and sales volumes by company and commodity.

Big windfall from booming mining

In Mongolia, more than 50 per cent of the tax revenue stems from copper mining, with coal mining being the second largest source.

Further, windfall tax and corporate income tax are the largest revenue streams, representing 36 per cent and 17 per cent of total reported government income respectively.

In total, the extractive sector accounted for 30 per cent of GDP, 32 per cent of government revenue and 81 per cent of exports in 2010.

The EITI report now includes payments from 150 of the largest companies, whose payments are larger than the agreed threshold. The revenues from the smaller operators were disclosed in a separate report issued by the Ministry of Finance and Mongolian Mineral Resources authority.

Like previous reports, the 2010 report includes highly detailed reporting of social payments and donations to state, regional and local government. It covers payments to 21 provinces and 169 districts, as well as separate sub-national reconciliations for the districts where Oyu Tologi, one of the world's biggest copper mines, and Tavan Tolgoi, the world's biggest deposit of coking, are located.

Mongolia's 2010 EITI Report can be downloaded here »

For further information about EITI in Mongolia, please visit Mongolia's EITI country page.