Earlier this week the Mongolian government announced that it had chosen the largest US-based coal producer Peabody Energy and Chinese coal mining enterprise China Shenua Energy and a Russian-Mongolia consortium for the giant Tavan Tolgoi coking coal project. The statement did not mention the Japanese or South Korean companies that were also shortlisted as part of a Russian-Korean-Japanese consortium. However, the Mongolian government has since said that its decision on the shortlisted bidders for the Tavan Tolgoi coal project is not final yet, as Reuters reports.
South Korea stated that the bidding process was "unclear and unfair". "While we were still in talks, the Mongolian government unilaterally announced three shortlisted bidders without negotiations with the participants," South Korea's energy minister said in a statement.
The South Korean statement also criticized the Mongolian government for picking the newly formed Russian-Mongolia consortium and excluding the Korean and Japanese firms.
"We are still in talks with the companies. It is not final yet," B. Enebish, executive director of Mongolian state-owned Erdenes MGL, which owns the deposit, told Reuters.