Go to the Head of the Class

By Isaac Stone Fish

Mongolian president Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj knows he's sitting on a gold mine. His resource-rich country boasts the world's largest underdeveloped copper and gold lodes, the world's second-largest uranium reserves, and huge coal deposits. Thanks to this mostly untapped mineral wealth, analysts from Eurasia Capital and Renaissance Capital predict Mongolia will be the fastest-growing economy of the next decade (the IMF predicts the fourth-fastest). Elbegdorj is intent on using this resource wealth to help develop his country, still one of the poorer nations in the world. He's sent officials to Chile to study how to keep resource profits in-country. And he's assured that Mongolians will benefit from developments: at the Turquoise Hill gold and copper mine, which is expected to account for more than 30 percent of Mongolian GDP when completed, Mongolians will have a 34 percent stake in the project. While it's too early to tell whether Elbegdorj will be able to stave off the resource curse that befalls so many economies, the outlook is certainly promising.