On September 11, 2025, at the foot of Taij Khairkhan Mountain, the Mining and Community Development session took place as part of Mining Week & MinePro 2025. The session was jointly organized by the Mongolian National Mining Association (MNMA) and the Council for Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility (CSS).

The keynote, delivered by O. Batbold, Chairman of the CSS Board, focused on “Policy Regulation of Mining–Community Relations: Lessons and Experiences.” Reviewing outcomes and impacts of mining–community policies and legal frameworks since 2010, he emphasized that while progress has been made, sustainable relations depend on trust and accountability.

Discussion Highlights:

• Mining “benefits” should be assessed not just in financial terms, but also in social value.
• The legal definition of mining impact areas should be based on scientific evidence.
• Numerous successful examples of local cooperation exist across the sector.
• The government should act as a facilitator, not as a force dividing companies and communities.
• Health risks to local residents must be integrated into policy decisions.
• The ultimate measure of success is the effectiveness of community development agreements.

Key Calls to Action:

• Projects succeed when built on mutual understanding and collaboration with local communities.
• Mining operations that ignore environmental and community concerns cannot achieve lasting success.
• Encourage responsible, long-term cooperation rather than one-off donations.

Core Message: Local development is inseparably linked to mining, but sustainable success relies on trust, collaboration, and people-centered policies, not money alone.