Aspire hopes that Mongolia’s announcement – that any foreign...

Aspire hopes that Mongolia’s announcement – that any foreign investor seeking more than one-third of a project needs to seek government approval – will lift this cloud of uncertainty.

On Friday there was more good news for Aspire, when the pre-feasibility study for the Ovoot coking coalmine in Mongolia’s north confirmed it has resources to underpin a 15-year, 15 million tonne a year operation.

The study, based on Wood Mackenzie estimates for an average $US200 a tonne coking coal price, envisages earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $US68 a tonne.

The project is one of only a handful of high-quality, low-ash coking coalmines that will be open cut and is scheduled to begin when a new rail line is built in 2016.

While the second stage, including a 200 kilometre rail spur, comes with a $US700 million price tag, the initial stage is expected to cost a more manageable $US565 million.

Aspire executives acknowledge that with a $109 million market capitalisation, the chances of raising the money needed from equity markets are at best slim.

Instead the company will look to sell strategic stakes to investors and offtake customers to fund stage one. It then plans to use its own cash flow to build the spur line to Moron and a second 5.9 million tonne a year wash plant.