Mongolia Marches Toward Modernity

Timothy Fadek / Polaris

Natural Resource
A worker surveys the copper processing plant at a mining complex in Erdenet. After the loss of aid from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Mongolia transitioned out of a communist economic system and began allowing private investment. In 2009, Rio Tinto and Canada's Ivanhoe Mines created a $4.5 billion dollar copper and gold mining franchise in the country.

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