“Yes,” Mongolian Prime Minister Chimed Saikhanbileg reportedly said on March 4 in a closed-door question-and-answer session at the American Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia, market intelligence analyst Badral Munkhdul, founder and CEO of Cover Mongolia, told Geopolitical Monitor on March 5.

The two parties have been locked in a stalemate for months now, with the Mongolian government insisting that Rio Tinto owes $30 million in taxes, while the mining firm has been unhappy with Mongolian management of the $5.4 billion mining project, claiming that costs have ballooned unnecessarily.