SouthGobi Resources has appointed Bold Baatar as a non-executive director. Mr Baatar, 40, currently serves as president, international operations of Rio Tinto Copper group.

Prior to joining Rio Tinto, Mr Baatar was CEO of Golden East LLC, a gold exploration and mining company in Mongolia. Previously, he was CEO of Newcom, where he managed and built a diverse investment portfolio across the telecom, airline, property management, mining services and renewable energy sectors. He held senior-level positions with JP Morgan in London, Moscow and New York, where he acquired extensive experience in the mergers, acquisitions and divestment arena.

Mr Baatar is chair of the Board of the Mongolian National Mining Association and a member of the Executive Board of the Business Council of Mongolia. He has not held any directorships in publicly listed companies in the past three years and owns no shares or options in the company or in Turquoise Hill Resources, the company’s major shareholder, and no shares or options in Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill’s majority shareholder.

There is no specific term or proposed length of services for Bold Baatar’s appointment, but he is subject to retirement and re-election at annual general meeting of the company in accordance with the article of continuation of the company.

As a non-executive director, Bold Baatar will receive a fee of Can$25,000 per annum and Can$1500 per in-person meeting attended and Can$600 per conference call meeting attended. He will also receive a travel allowance of Can$2000 per round-trip in excess of four hours travel time. As he is an employee of Rio Tinto, the majority shareholder of Turquoise Hill, his fees are payable to Rio Tinto.

SouthGobi chairman Kay Priestly says, “On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to welcome Bold to the company. He brings significant skills and experience that will be very valuable to SouthGobi as we focus on strengthening the company’s core business performance and realizing its production potential.”

SouthGobi is focused on exploration and development of its metallurgical and thermal coal deposits in Mongolia’s South Gobi Region. It has a 100% shareholding in SouthGobi Sands LLC, a Mongolian registered company that holds the mining and exploration licences in Mongolia and operates the flagship Ovoot Tolgoi coal mine.

www.southgobi.com