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NEWS - CONTINUED FEBRUARY 2018 • E&MJ; 23 www.e-mj.com MDO could be considered but on con- dition that the latter would mandatorily have to enter into a tie up with an India company to be eligible to bid for any HCL project, company officials said. IRL had been a MDO for HCL's Sur- da copper mines in the eastern Indian province of Jharkhand, but last year, the Indian copper miner received a notice from IRL and its special purpose vehicle, Eastern Goldfields Ltd. stating that the latter was terminating the operational and maintenance contract for Surda mines with immediate effect. The Indian copper refiner maintained that the notice for termination of con- tract was "unilateral, wrongful and breach of contract" for which HCL was entitled to clam liquidated damages from IRL and that there had not been any failure on the part of HCL to pay the disputed monthly payments for a con- tinuous period of 90 days from date of submission of bills. The HCL-IRL dispute affected the operations of the Surda mines, which ac- cording to one estimate, suffered a fall in monthly production of just 25 million ton per month, barely 10% of its monthly production capacity. Rio Tinto Will Open New Office in Mongolia Rio Tinto continues to strengthen its pres- ence in Mongolia by establishing a new of- fice in Ulaanbaatar and planning to expand its number of national employees to around 80 through the course of 2018. The new Rio Tinto office will support the company's ex- ploration program and technology center and have a sharp focus on growing relationships with all partners in Mongolia, Rio Tinto said. "Mongolia is one of Rio Tinto's most strategically important markets and we are here to stay," said Rio Tinto Chief Execu- tive J-S Jacques. "We have invested more than $7 billion in Mongolia since 2010, including salaries, supplier payments, in- vestment in the community, and $1.5 bil- lion in taxes, royalties and other payments to the government of Mongolia." Munkhtushig Dul has been appointed as Rio Tinto's country director and will lead the new Rio Tinto office. Munkhtushig will work in coordination with the Oyu Tolgoi LLC team, led by managing director Ar- mando Torres. Dul has more than 20 years of experience in public service, mining and the commodities industry and has pre- viously worked in senior roles within the Noble Group's Mongolian operations. "Today we are demonstrating the deepening of our commitment to Mon- golia through the establishment of a new country office under new Mongolian lead- ership to support our exploration, global technology services efforts and relation- ships in country," Jacques said. The new office, which will be separate from Oyu Tolgoi LLC, will house Rio Tinto's Exploration (RTX) team and the Mongolia Delivery Centre (MDC), the local branch of Rio Tinto's Information Systems and Tech- nology (IS&T;) team. The MDC team will help service Rio Tinto's global operations. Mongolia and Rio Tinto have also set up a joint working group to explore whether funding costs can be reduced to improve benefits from the Oyu Tolgoi project for all shareholders; an accelerated path of devel- opment for a power solution in Mongolia; and an acceleration of Oyu Tolgoi's strategy to enable private and public investments to- wards sustainable community development in Khanbogd, the town closest to the mine. "We want to work with the government of Mongolia to create long-term sustain- able solutions that benefit all stakehold- ers and the country while staying true to the established investment frameworks," Jacques said. "We will continue to work together to solve outstanding issues as the joint working group progresses win- win solutions on matters such as power and community development." NEWS - CALENDAR OF EVENTS (Regional News-Asia - from p. 18) MARCH 4-7, 2018: Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada's annual meeting, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Canada. Contact: Web: www.pdac.ca. APRIL 10-12, 2018: EU-Latin America Mining & Exploration Convention and Trade Show (METS), Madrid, Spain. Contact: Web: www.mets2018.eu. APRIL 17-19, 2018: MiningWorld Russia, Crocus Expo, Moscow, Russia. Contact: Web: www.miningworld.run/en. APRIL 23-27, 2018: Expomin 2018 Espacio Riesco, Santiago, Chile. Contact: Web: www.expomin.cl. MAY 6-9, 2018: Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM 2018), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Contact: Web: www.cim.org. MAY 14-17, 2018: 2018 Economic Evaluation & Investment Decision Methods, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA. Contact: Web: https://csmspace.com/events/econeval/. MAY 19-28, 2018: ALTA 2018 Nickel-Cobalt-Copper, Uranium-REE-Li & Gold-PM Conference & Exhibition, Perth, Australia. Contact: Web: www.altamet.com.au/conferences/alta-2018/. MAY 29-31, 2018: Peru Gold & Silver Symposium, The Westin Lima Hotel and Convention Center, Lima, Peru. Contact: Web: www.snmpe.org.pe. JUNE 4-8, 2018: Elko Mining Expo, Elko, Nevada, USA. Contact: Web: www.elkocva.com/major_events/elko_mining_expo. JUNE 5-8, 2018: Ugol Rossii & Mining, Novokuznetsk, Russia. Contact: Web: www.ugol-rossii.com/. JUNE 12-14, 2018: Euro Mine Expo, Skellefteå, Sweden. Contact: Web: www.euromineexpo.com; Email: jaana.tengman@euromineexpo.com. AUGUST 6-8, 2018: Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Contact: Web: http://diggersndealers.com.au. SEPTEMBER 10-14, 2018: Electra Mining Africa, Expo Centre Nasrec, Johannesburg, South Africa. Contact: Web: www.electramining.co.za. SEPTEMBER 20-22, 2018: China Mining 2018, Tianjin Meijiang Con- vention Center, Tianjin, Peoples Republic of China. Contact: Web: www.chinaminingtj.org.