PM asks bauxite mining to ensure sustainable development
The Lam Dong bauxite mining project must ensure economic effectiveness, environmental protection and sustainable development for the Central Highlands, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The Government leader made a fact-finding trip to the bauxite mining and aluminium industry integrated project at Loc Thang town in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong’s Bao Lam district as part of his visit to the locality on August 18.
The project, invested by the Vietnam Coal-Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin), is designed to exploit more than 4.3 million tonnes of bauxite a year in the first phase. The project site also houses a 1.6 million tonne ore sorting plant and a 650,000-tonne aluminium plant.
Inspecting the construction site, PM Dung requested the investor and the contractors work to ensure the pace of construction as planned, to put the plants into operation as designed.
The PM said Vietnam possesses a bauxite reserve that is estimated at 5.5 billion tonnes, mainly located in the Central Highlands and that the mining of this mineral will bring in a great profit for the country.
The Government has since 2005 allowed relevant agencies to work on a project to exploit this natural resource, which is the country’s first project involved in the bauxite mining and aluminium industry, he said.
The PM highly valued Vinacomin’s efforts in implementing the project at the planned pace to enable the aluminium plant to start operating in mid-2010.
He affirmed that the bauxite project is one of the major projects of significant importance to the nation’s industrialisation and modernisation.
The PM lauded the Lam Dong authorities for co-operation in site clearance and the provision of settlements for those who had to move out of their homes to clear land for the project and asked them to continue co-ordinating with Vinacomin in addressing the needs of those displaced.
The same day, he witnessed the hand-over of 26 houses to ethnic minority people who had given up their land for the project. (VNA)
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