Bauxite mining in Vietnam
Encyclopedia
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
is estimated to hold the world's third-largest bauxite
Bauxite
Bauxite is an aluminium ore and is the main source of aluminium. This form of rock consists mostly of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, in a mixture with the two iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite, and small amounts of anatase TiO2...
ore reserves, after Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The majority of Vietnam's reserves are located in the Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên
Tây Nguyên
Tây Nguyên, translated as Western Highlands and sometimes also called Central Highlands, is one of the regions of Vietnam. It contains the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lâm Đồng....
) and have only been minimally mined. Bauxite is typically strip mined
Surface mining
Surface mining , is a type of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit are removed...
and is used to produce aluminum. According to estimates by Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam's reserves in the Central Highlands amount to 5.4 billion tons. Despite its large reserves, Vietnam produces only 30,000 tons of bauxite per year.
A draft mining plan for bauxite was approved by the Vietnamese government in 2007. Vinacomin
Vinacomin
Vinacomin is a Vietnamese mining company. The industrial conglomerate focuses on coal and mineral mining and has headquarters in Ha Long, Quang Ninh Province.-History:Vinacomin was created by the merger of the Vietnam Coal Corporation and Vietnam Minerals Corporation...
, a Vietnamese mining company, has laid out a plan for 6 bauxite mining projects covering over 1800 square kilometers in Vietnam's mountainous Central Highlands. The first two processing plants for the plan have been contracted to Chalco, a Chinese mining company. The Nhan Co project in Dak Nong Province
Dak Nong Province
Đắk Nông , or Ðắc Nông, is a province of Vietnam. It is located in the country's Central Highlands. The provincial capital is Gia Nghĩa.-Geography:...
and the Tan Rai complex in Lâm Đồng Province are expected to produce 600,000 tons of alumina
Aluminium oxide
Aluminium oxide is an amphoteric oxide with the chemical formula 23. It is commonly referred to as alumina, or corundum in its crystalline form, as well as many other names, reflecting its widespread occurrence in nature and industry...
per year. Vietnam has indicated that it needs about $15.6 billion to invest in major bauxite and alumina refining projects by 2025. Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng has approved several large mining projects for the Central Highlands, asserting that bauxite exploitation is "a major policy of the party and the state."
The mining plans have met with strong criticism from scientists, environmentalists and Vietnam's general population. Forests and agricultural land used by coffee and tea farmers are threatened by the plans and opponents have raised concerns about the toxic waste red mud
Red mud
Red mud is a solid waste product of the Bayer process, the principal industrial means of refining bauxite in order to provide alumina as raw material for the electrolysis of aluminium by the Hall–Héroult process. A typical plant produces one to two times as much red mud as alumina...
generated through the refinement of bauxite. Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap
Vo Nguyen Giap
Võ Nguyên Giáp is a retired Vietnamese officer in the Vietnam People’s Army and a politician. He was a principal commander in two wars: the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War...
has offered strong criticism of the plans, saying that a 1980s study led to experts advising against mining due to severe ecological damage.
In March 2010, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
indicated that malicious software targeting Vietnamese opponents of bauxite mining had infected potentially tens of thousands of users. The malware
Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...
was used in denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s against dissenting political blogs and installed itself after users downloaded altered Vietnamese language
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
software. The malware was also used to spy on users. The cyber attacks appeared to be a politically motivated attack, according to George Kurtz of McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga claimed such comments were groundless.
In November 2010, Nguyen Tan Dung, the prime minister of Vietnam, announced that Vietnam's bauxite deposits might total 11,000 Mt; this would be the largest in the world.
Companies involved
- VinacominVinacominVinacomin is a Vietnamese mining company. The industrial conglomerate focuses on coal and mineral mining and has headquarters in Ha Long, Quang Ninh Province.-History:Vinacomin was created by the merger of the Vietnam Coal Corporation and Vietnam Minerals Corporation...
(Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group) - United Company RUSALUnited Company RUSALUnited Company RUSAL is the world's largest aluminium company, with headquarters in Moscow, Russian Federation. UC RUSAL accounts for almost 11% of the world's primary aluminium output and 13% of the world’s alumina production. The United Company was formed by the merger of RUSAL , SUAL, and the...
has struck a deal with a Vietnamese firm to build an alumina refinery using bauxite from a deposit in the Bình Phước ProvinceBinh Phuoc ProvinceBình Phước is a province of Vietnam. It is located in the southeastern region of the country, to the north of Ho Chi Minh City. It shares a border with Cambodia.-History:... - Chalco, (Aluminum Corporation of China Limited)