KT partners with Mongolia's Monnis Group for rare earths

South Korean telecommunications giant KT Corp. announced Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Monnis Group, a Mongolian industrial holding conglomerate, for a joint business venture into the rare earth minerals industry.

This comes after another memorandum previously signed on Jan. 26 between KT and the Mongolian government for the supply of various mineral resources, including rare earth elements.

Following this new agreement, KT is now able to utilize Monnis Group’s licenses related to mineral resource development and mining with which it plans to speed up the steady collection of minerals.

Monnis Group specializes in various fields such as automobiles, mining, heavy equipment, civil engineering, trade and more, raking in an average of 500 billion won ($406 million) in annual revenue.

In particular, it owns a license for mining rare earth elements, making it a key company in mineral resource development and mining in Mongolia, which is home to among the richest deposits of mineral commodities in the world.

Principal reserves range from coal, fluorite, gold and copper to other metallic ores. These materials are of high value and they are notably used for making electronic devices, car parts and more.

Moon Sung-uk, head of the global business unit at KT, and Chuluunbaatar Baz, chairman of Monnis Group, participated in the signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding at the Monnis Group headquarters in Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.

“We have been able to sign this MOU and carry out additional measures for securing supplies thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Korean government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as friendly relations between both countries,” Moon said in a statement.

“We will do our best to contribute not only to the development of other industries but also to that of South Korea through continued cooperation with the government and industries that need mineral resources.”