Mongolia says China has closed a key border crossing, creating huge congestion, nearly a week after the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, visited the country.
Hundreds of truck drivers for the mining conglomerate Rio Tinto are stuck at the Gants Mod crossing in southeastern Mongolia in freezing temperatures.
Footage shows a long line of trucks on the Mongolian side of the border waiting to cross.
"Mongolia says these drivers spend hours, and in some cases days, waiting in the cold," Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said on Saturday. "Temperatures at night that can drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius."
Rio Tinto, which operates vast copper and gold mines, has now suspended shipment to China of copper concentrate.
The Dalai Lama is cherished as a spiritual leader in predominantly Buddhist Mongolia, but is considered a separatist in China for supporting a long drawn-out campaign for independence for Tibet.
Beijing has been campaigning for a diplomatic boycott of the Dalai Lama since 1959, when he escaped to India and formed a government-in-exile. The Dalai Lama retired from political life in 2011.
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