About the project and its impacts
The Oyu Tolgoi mine is a massive copper and gold mining project located in the remote South Gobi Desert of Mongolia. It’s owned and managed by Rio Tinto through Turquoise Hills (66%) and by the Government of Mongolia (34%), and it started operating in 2011. The project received a $6.2 billion syndicated loan by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Human rights concerns regarding the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongolia’s South Gobi desert, as well as its associated infrastructure, center around environmental degradation, displacement of nomadic herders, and unfulfilled corporate commitments by Rio Tinto.
- Water Scarcity and Contamination: The massive extraction and processing operations require huge amounts of water in the arid South Gobi desert. Local nomadic herders report that local wells are going dry, and communities express ongoing fears regarding wastewater disposal impacting groundwater safety.
- Displacement and Loss of Livelihood:Khanbogd herders are nomadic pastoralists who have been herding animals in this region for centuries, but they are not recognized as land-based carriers of nomadic pastoralist culture and do not enjoy the protections of the Declaration on Indigenous Peoples. The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine has taken away their best pastures and water resources in the Undai River basin and Bor Ovoo spring, which was shared by 350 herding households. Large-scale land acquisition has physically and economically displaced dozens of herder households, destroying traditional seasonal migration routes and fragmenting ancestral pasturelands.
- Slow Implementation of Agreements: Despite historic tripartite legal settlements and a framework of 60 commitments agreed upon between local herding communities and Oyu Tolgoi LLC regarding compensation and water access, communities have flagged slow progress and unfulfilled promises.
- Inadequate Consultation: Civil society groups like Oyu Tolgoi Watch (OT Watch) have long criticized international financial backers (such as the IFC and EBRD) for insufficient prior consultation and lax enforcement of social-environmental standards.
About the community-led struggle
In 2012 and 2013, Gobi Soil and other civil society organisations (CSOs) filed complaints to the IFC’s accountability office regarding the loss of access to traditional water and pasture resources. IFC accountability mechanism (CAO) facilitated a mediation process, which led the parties to establish the Tripartite Council (TPC), a freestanding body of representatives from the mine, herders and the local government.
In May 2017, after years of negotiation, the TPC reached two final agreements to resolve herders’ complaints and address issues related to pasture and water resources, monitoring of impacts and community relations, compensation for lost livelihoods, and the mine’s disruption of the Undai River and sacred Bor Ovoo spring. However, the agreement was not implemented. As highlighted by our Coalition’s member Accountability Counsel, who supported the complainants, “With some of the most important commitments still pending, herders continue to express fears about whether they can continue to engage in traditional livestock herding in their changed environment.”
In 2022, supported by the CRE, local CSO Gobi Soil visited and contacted over 200 herder households in the province of Khanbogd, providing information on how to elect representatives to the Khanbogd Tripartite Council in accordance with its rules. In January 2022, Gobi Soil also organised a two-day legal demonstration at the entrance to the Oyu Tolgoi mine, to demand jobs for the affected herder households and implementation of the cooperation agreement to support their sustainable livelihoods.
The agreements are an important achievement, but unless they are carried out effectively, they may amount to little more than words on paper. Turning the agreements into reality requires dedicated work by all parties, and that work is far from over.
On this website developed by Accountability Counsel, you can read about the progress and the issues that still need to be addressed.
Further resources