great summary; very interesting read about the (highly appreciated/necessary) visit of mr John Knox to Mongolia, pinpointing the urgent issues:
the impact assessments lack of a solid scientific basis; even worse, local consultation (previously and informed) is often ignored. let alone that this consultation requires actual dialogue, not just confirming 'we'll bring the dozers in a months or so'.

further, i believe universities could play an important role to execute an independent and comprehensive study on potentials of a region, on possible impacts and precautionary measures. as such, they could (attempt to) balance the environmental impact assessments (EIAs).

at the same time, capacity of (local and national) government needs to be strengthened so that government officials can actually read, understand (and hopefully also analyse critically) these EIAs.
Finally, it seems the real environmental impact is underestimated in EIAs. does this indicate that either the science did work or (worse) was ignored, and/or does this imply a weak follow up on the actual mining operation when running?