Mineral riches beneath the arid soil of Mongolia could soon make the sparsely populated country the world’s fastest-growing economy. There are different ways of looking at this. The video above focuses on ruined landscapes and displaced herders. The one below emphasizes the economic benefit of exporting mineral riches to China. The first, released by the European environmental groups C.E.E. Bankwatch Network, Urgewald and O T Watch, anticipates the repercussions from the promised public offering of shares in Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, a state-run company that controls one of the world’s richest coal deposits. The second is an upbeat advertisement for a northern iron ore mine, showing a microcosm of the mining boom that has been accelerating since this former Soviet satellite began to emerge as a free-market economy. To read the full article & view the videos, click here: Mongolia as Minegolia? Paying the Price