Buried in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia’s economic future rests on a massive mining project called Turquoise Hill. Known locally as Oyu Tolgoi, the copper and gold mine, co-owned by Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and the Mongolian government, is expected to balloon the Central Asian country’s GDP — an estimated $13.28 billion in 2011 — by more than 30 per cent when it starts full production later this year. But the economic boon is also, for some, an environmental nightmare as the project will allegedly soak up valuable water resources in the already-arid Gobi. While reports vary, the mine plans to use up to 920 litres of water per second.
Ivanhoe Mines is controlled by Rio Tinto.
See http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1159478–massive-mongolian-mine-raises-environmental-fears.