I was under the impression that AKM had farmed out the heavy...

I was under the impression that AKM had farmed out the heavy lifting to Noble (as announced last November). What progress Noble has made since then we don't know unfortunately. Maybe Noble has waited for the PFS before knocking on doors (I doubt it).

Maybe Chalco was to be the white knight (until they stuffed things up).

Maybe another Chinese entity was in mind.

Either way, I was encouraged by BP's comments in his recent interview:

“The only impact for us [of the new foreign investment rules] is in terms of adding a layer of time in the approvals process,” Aspire managing director David Paull told Reuters.

He said it was not likely to limit potential funding sources for Aspire’s mine and rail project, expected to cost a total of $2 billion.

“If there’s a foreign SOE (state-owned enterprise) in the funding structure, we will need to have that approved… It’s really about finding the package the Mongolian government’s comfortable with,” he said.
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So, let's be patient. We know the quality of the coal and the PFS may tell us that there's more there than we think. And $2 billion isn't that big a deal these days to a SOE (Indian, Korean ...).

It's always darkest before dawn.