On the empty morning plains of the Gobi, where the horizon rolls unbroken and the wind carries the grit of centuries, a new sound is beginning to cut through the stillness: the low, rhythmic growl of freight trains. For a country long romanticised for its nomadic heritage and sweeping steppes, the rise of steel tracks across its desert heartland signals something deeper than modernisation. It marks Mongolia’s bid to finally unlock the mineral wealth lying beneath its soil — and to shift its economic future onto a faster, more reliable route.
Mongolia is one of the world’s richest untapped mining frontiers, sitting atop billions of tonnes of coal, copper and iron ore. Coal alone contributes around 12 percent of its GDP and more than half of all exports. Much of that is coking coal, coveted by steelmakers for its crucial role in the blast-furnace process. And with China — the world’s largest steel producer — right across the border, demand continues to surge.
Last year Mongolia exported nearly 84 million tonnes of coal, its highest ever, with shipments to China setting monthly records. The momentum has been reinforced at the political level: during recent meetings in Beijing, leaders of both countries reaffirmed coal trade as a central pillar of bilateral economic ties.
But Mongolia’s mining boom has been slowed, quite literally, by its roads. Most coal moves by truck along two-lane highways, where long queues, slow border processing and limited capacity restrict each vehicle to just three round trips a fortnight. The bottleneck has capped production at major sites such as Tavan Tolgoi, which could output 50 million tonnes a year but settles for around 30 million.
The government’s answer is rail. Under the New Revival Policy adopted in 2021, Mongolia has pushed through 900 km of new railway construction across the Gobi, aiming to create five rail-enabled border crossings. The flagship 240-km Gashuunsukhait–Gantsmod line, commissioned in 2022, now connects Tavan Tolgoi directly to China, slashing transport time to four hours.
The private sector’s participation has proven to be vital to growing Mongolia’s railway network. Gobi Mine and Transport Group (GMT), a local company that provides mining and heavy industry services, including infrastructure projects and geological exploration, initiated the building of a rail link to the Khangi border crossing.
The new line has added a convergence point to an existing railway between Tavan Tolgoi and Zuunbayan, a branch station feeding traffic to the Zamyn-Uud port. That allows trains to choose a 227km short cut to Khangi, connecting to China’s Mandal port, which is the closest customs entry point to the major steel production hub of Baotou, 290km away.
GMT, through its wholly owned business Mongolian Trans Line (MTL), completed the project in a record eight months. But, like the Gashuunsukhait-Gantsmod railway, facilities for full cross-border linkage are still in progress, with trucks continuing to be used as a stopgap measure.
However, the impact is already apparent. After MTL’s new rail line started operations in 2023, cargo volumes handled at Khangi en route to Mandal surged to 8.5 million tonnes, compared with 3 million tonnes in 2022.
Since these new railway lines were put into service, Tavan Tolgoi’s output – and, in turn, the country’s overall coal exports – have recorded new highs for two consecutive years.
