UPDATE 3-Polls close in Mongolia as mining deals eyed

(Recasts with close of polls)

By Lindsay Beck

ULAN BATOR, June 29 (Reuters) - Mongolians turned out in droves on Sunday to vote in a tight race that will see the election of a government charged with fighting inflation and tapping into the windswept country's huge mineral wealth.

Polls closed at 1400 GMT, but results in the vote that pits the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) against the Democratic Party were not expected until Monday at the earliest.

Many voters expressed a desire to see a more stable government, and Mongolia's Election Commission said judging from early returns, voter turnout was expected to surpass the 82 percent who voted in 2004.

The last election four years ago resulted in a hung parliament, leaving the parties to scramble to form a government to rule the landlocked country of less than 3 million, whose empire under Genghis Khan once extended west as far as Hungary.

In the event of another deadlock in the 76-seat parliament, or Great Hural, the smaller parties on the ballot could be the real power-brokers.

"Our party's position is very constructive. We raise our voices if there is bad and we support what is good," said Sanjaasurengin Oyun, of the Civil Will Party.

Oyun, who has cooperated with both major parties in past, declined to say who her party might favour this time.