"I'm one of the eight geologists employed by Erdenes Mongol, Mongolia's state-owned mining company. Since May last year, I've been working at both our headquarters in Ulaanbaatar and at the Asgat silver deposit project, which is more than 1,000 kilometres away, in the Altai Mountains in northwestern Mongolia. It's the most remote mine in the country and some sections reach 3,000 metres above sea level."
"In this photo, I'm inspecting a planned drilling site in the silver-copper mineralization zone - the area where these metals form geologically. I'm about 750 metres into one of the mine's 2 kilometres of tunnels. We're still at the exploratory stage, but we think that the ore body for this site contains around 2,200 tonnes of silver, which would make it one of the world's richest deposits."
One of eight geologists at Erdenes Mongol splits time between the Ulaanbaatar headquarters and the Asgat silver deposit in the Altai Mountains. The Asgat site lies more than 1,000 kilometres from the capital and reaches elevations up to 3,000 metres. Seasonal access ends in November because temperatures can drop below -45 °C. On-site work includes inspecting planned drilling sites in the silver-copper mineralization zone and advancing roughly 750 metres into a two-kilometre tunnel. The project remains at the exploratory stage with an estimated ore body of around 2,200 tonnes of silver, making it potentially one of the world's richest deposits.
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