One of the heavily coal-reliant countries the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development works in is Mongolia, which despite the Bank’s halting of funding for coal-related projects (see the related story this week) will continue to add coal-fired power generation capacity. One project going ahead is a 300 MW coal-fired plant that will supply an expansion of Rio Tinto’s copper mine, Oyu Tolgoi, in the south Gobi Desert. An agreement has recently been signed between Rio Tinto and the government of Mongolia, with construction to begin in 2020 and a plan for the commencement of operations by 2023. Apart from increased economic activity, the new plant is set to benefit Mongolia by reducing the need to import electricity from China. The plant will be supplied by fuel from the nearby Tavan Tolgoi coalfields.