Irish Intel veteran joins $1bn Mongolian mining and energy venture
PHILIP Moynagh, a former 25-year veteran of Intel’s manufacturing operation here, has taken up a role as a partner and chief operating officer of Tengri Holding, a Mongolian mining and energy venture that has raised $1bn.
The firm is in the process of raising more funds, it is understood, and has assembled a number of Mongolian licences both for developing conven- tional and renewable energy assets, and for mining a range of minerals, including quartz, fluorspar, lithium, graphite, silver as well as various rare earth minerals.
In addition, the venture is planning to list its first company on the Toronto Stock Exchange later this year, it is understood.
Sparsely-populated Mongolia, which is landlocked between Russia and China, has vast natural resources and has in recent years sought to increase foreign direct investment.
Its economy is currently largely dependent on agriculture and mining and resources.
Tengri Holding was founded in 2007 by chairman and CEO Khurlee Ankhbayar, who has 30 years of experience building businesses there in tourism, agriculture, construction and mining.
Moynagh will have a particular interest in any resources of graphite in Mongolia that the firm might discover, as he is the co-founder – along with low-key tidal energy entrepreneur Donal O’Flynn (who co-founded OpenHydro) – of Dublin-based graphene manufacturing startup GrapheneXL.
At Intel, Moynagh was the general manager for the production line of its Quark chip, which was heralded by the US giant in 2013 for the fact that it was designed here in Ireland.
An engineering and maths graduate of Trinity College, Moynagh previously worked for Intel in the US, and in the UK for Bell Labs before that.