Called the “Northern Rail Corridor”, the agreement identifies a 3,500km rail path connecting the seaport of Tianjin to the Trans-Siberian Railway at Kuragino.

Approximately 2,100km of this rail corridor already exists and Aspire’s rail subsidiary, Northern Railways LLC, has been awarded a Rail Concession from the Mongolian government to build, operate and transfer a 547km section of the Northern Rail Corridor from Erdenet to Aspire’ s Ovoot Coking Coal project.

Northern Railways LLC is owned 90% by Aspire and 10% by the Noble Group.

The Northern Rail Corridor requires the completion of additional rail developments from Erdenet to Ovoot (547km) to Arts Suuri (200km) to Kyzyl (260km) and to Kuragino (410km) for a total of 1,414km.

Each of these rail developments will be subject to identifying their commercial feasibility.

Two-way trade freight along this Northern Rail Corridor will provide a long term demand for fast efficient rail freight services.

The establishment of this Northern Rail Corridor confirms that the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway has developed from being a rail connection to a large coking coal project, to now being part of an important new trade infrastructure route.

“It is also the company’s understanding that Aspire is the only listed public company with a significant interest in this new rail corridor,” Aspire said in a statement.

“The inclusion of the Erdenet to Ovoot Railway in the Northern Rail Corridor enhances the value adding opportunity for Ovoot Coking Coal to be blended with Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi non coking coals as reported in the company’s recent announcement on 23 June 2016.

“The Northern Rail Corridor forms one of the six key rail and maritime economic corridors that form the basis of China’s One Belt One Road strategy to grow trade with its near neighbours in Asia and Europe.”