MONGOLIA - Aspire funds hospital development

Aspire Mining will contribute half the construction costs of a new 20-bed hospital near the company’s Ovoot coking coal project in northern Mongolia. Aspire will also provide funding for two doctors to provide health care services on site at Ovoot and to nearby communities.

The hospital project will be completed in partnership with the Khuvsgal provincial government which began construction on the hospital in October 2010. A lack of funding has since delayed the project, despite the local government spending US$140,750 to date. The investment commitment from Aspire will enable the hospital’s completion by November.

The local community of Tsetserleg has been without a hospital since 2009 when a government inspection recommended its closure due to significant structural damage at the ageing facility. The nearest medical clinic is 25km away and has proved difficult for some residents to access.

The new hospital has been designed by a local company and will include facilities to provide medical aid for children, maternity and pre-natal and post-natal care as well as quarantine for infectious diseases.

Aspire’s managing director David Paull says the company’s contribution is in accordance with its social responsibility policy and will greatly improve health services for the region.

He says Aspire has also funded the doctor’s salary at the nearby Mogoin Gol health clinic. The company’s own Ovvot on-site full time doctor is also made available for house calls to local residents who are unable to travel.

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