Our approach
Why closed mine land.
Closed mines have cleared ground, roads and a grid connection. That makes them cheaper and faster to build on, and the land recovers under the array.
Why mine land
The site is already half built.
A closed mine has what a solar project needs and open land does not.
- Cleared ground. The surface is already stripped and graded.
- Roads. Haul roads built for trucks will carry construction traffic.
- A grid connection. Mines draw heavy load, so the line is already there.
- No competing use. Nobody is farming or grazing it.
Together these cut what it costs to build and how long it takes to connect. 77% of Mongolia’s land is degraded, and a share of that is mine land with an owner who has a legal duty to do something about it.
Restoration
The land recovers under the array.
Solar development and land restoration are usually treated as competing uses of a site. On degraded ground they are not.
Panels shade the surface, cut wind speed at ground level and reduce evaporation. Vegetation returns in the space between the rows. Research presented at UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar in August 2026 recorded higher plant productivity and better water-use efficiency under desert solar arrays than on the same land left bare.
This matters commercially. A mine operator carrying a restoration obligation and a developer looking for a site want the same thing done to the same hectares.
Nalaikh
Where we have done this before.
Our founders contributed to a feasibility study for a 50 MW solar and storage project at Nalaikh, the largest closed mine site in Mongolia.
The study was carried out by Suzhou Tianwo and completed in June 2026. It concluded that the site is viable for solar with storage. Nalaikh district has an adopted energy transition strategy to 2040, funded by GIZ.
To be clear about what this is. Urimor Terra does not own, operate or hold a contract on the Nalaikh project. Our founders contributed to the study. We describe it here because it is the work we have done, not because it is ours.
Software
Assessing sites faster.
Assessing a mine site for reuse is slow and mostly manual. We are building software to shorten it.
It takes site data and produces closure options, a solar and storage feasibility view, and the figures a lender or a board needs to make a decision. It is at demonstration stage. We are not selling it yet.
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