Aspire Mining Ltd (ASX:AKM) pledged to plant 10 million trees in Mongolia at a recent signing ceremony in the country’s capital.

The resource stock met the Mongolian president, prime minister and environment minister in Ulaanbaatar, where he pledged to sow the 10 million saplings in the northwest Khuvsgul Aimag province from the country.

Aspire’s commitment is part of the Mongolian government’s pledge to plant 1 billion trees in Mongolia by 2030, as announced last year.

The mass planting campaign is part of the country’s efforts to reduce the impact of global climate change and strengthen Mongolia’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Government and corporations sow the seeds

The Mongolian government will devote no less than 1% of its gross domestic product to this green business, planting trees in three stages until 2030.

At a press conference describing the initiative in October last year, Mongolian Minister of Nature, Environment and Tourism, N.Urtnasan, said: “We have set up groups of work to launch a national campaign to plant a billion trees and ensure its implementation. for 10 years.

“To date, 76.9% of Mongolian territory is affected by desertification. It is estimated that if the campaign target is achieved, 120 million hectares of highly desertified land will be reduced by 4%, forest cover will increase by 9% and greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 600,000 tons. .

Urtnasan also noted that corporations would make up a large part of the campaign, with some large private companies choosing to plant between 20 million and 120 million trees over the next decade.

Next steps

Aspire has hired an agro-scientist to prepare a planting program and establish a tree nursery in the Khuvsgul capital of Murun, with the campaign being extended to meet the company’s commitment.

Once established, the nursery should be a long-term source of future tree plantings.

Overall, Aspire’s commitment to 10 million tree plantings by 2030 represents half of the total planting commitment for Khuvsgul Airmag province.

This also coincides with the ASX-lister’s sustainability program and environmental policies.

Develop coking coal assets

Aspire’s commitment to tree planting is in addition to commitments it has made in the Environmental Management Plan for its world-class, wholly-owned Ovoot Coking Coal Project.

Ovoot is one of two coking coal assets Aspire is developing in northwest Mongolia – the company also owns 90% of the Nuurstei project in Khuvsgul Aimag province.

Currently, the ASX-lister is focused on permitting, engineering and financing the Ovoot Coking Coal Project and its development into a producing asset.

The flagship project hosts 255 million tonnes of JORC compliant coal reserves and could support a large-scale production cycle of up to 10 million tonnes of salable coking coal per year over a long mine life.

A 2019 pre-feasibility study for the coking coal asset described a life of 4 million tonnes per year and 9.2 years of mining and rail truck operations at Ovoot.

The project has a net present value of US$586 million at a 10% discount, as well as an internal rate of return of 43.7%, and the company expects to make the decision to mine in 2022 once the permits and financing obtained.

Ultimately, Aspire intends to mine coking coal by open-pit truck to a company-owned terminal in Erdenet and deliver it to customers in China and Russia via the Mongolian rail network. existing.