VietNamNet Bridge – The whole land strip in the central region, which is
believed to possess big tourism potentials with beautiful beaches, has been
damaged by the mineral exploitation activities.
For the last many years, central region’s people have been nourishing the dream
of getting rich from titanium exploitation.
Titanium is a very important material in the aviation and cosmology industry.
Titanium and its products have become more and more expensive in the last 10
years.
The titanium dream
According to Truong Duc Chinh from the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industry Group (Vinacomin),
Vietnam ranks the 11th in the world in terms of titanium reserves. Of the 14
million tons worth of titanium reserves, 9 million tons are believed to be
situated in the coastal areas from Quang Ninh to Ba Ria – Vung Tau, mostly in Ha
Tinh.
The latest report of the Vietnam General Department of Geology and Minerals
showed that a huge titanium source in the red sand layer, estimated at 200
million tons of heavy minerals, has been found in the south of the central
region, from Ninh Thuan to Ba Ria – Vung Tau province.
The latest optimistic estimates say the reserves could be 650 million tons, a
huge number if noting that the total titanium reserves all over the world are
just 1,400 million tons.
The figures have made people hope that Vietnam would become a “titanium power.”
However, Pham Quang Tu, MA, Deputy Head of CODE, a development consultancy
institute, stressed that the figure was just the predicted reserves, while it
does not mean the figure Vietnam can exploit and sell for money.
“One must not entertain the illusion about the huge titanium reserves. It may
happen that Vietnam can only exploit titanium in the areas with easy
exploitation conditions, while the remaining would still be in earth’s crust
forever, or they would be exploited, but have no economic value,” Tu said.
Hurrying to exploit titanium for sale for money
CODE and PanNature, which once conducted a survey in Binh Dinh province, the
locality with the largest-scale titanium exploitation on the black sand layer,
met a Chinese language interpreter, who did the marketing for a Chinese
enterprise specializing in collecting titanium to export to China.
The interpreter said that the Chinese enterprise would buy all the titanium to
be offered to it.
The years 2008-2009 were the highest peak time of titanium exploitation. At that
time, 800,000 tons of titanium was exploited every year in Binh Dinh. The figure
did not count on the illegally exploited titanium, which was not shown on the
report. The figure 800,000 tons was much higher than the amount of titanium the
Prime Minister allowed to exploit every year.
The Binh Dinh provincial authorities granted 36 licenses to enterprises,
allowing to exploit titanium on an area of 656 hectares. Meanwhile, the Ministry
of Natural Resources and the Environment granted 7 licenses.
On March 19, 2013, the People’s Committee of Ninh Thuan, the neighboring
province of Binh Dinh, granted a license to Vinaminco Ninh Thuan, allowing the
enterprise to exploit titanium on the area of 1,200 hectares in Thuan Nam
district.
On the central beaches, titanium exploitation sites have mushroomed. It’s too
easy to get titanium from the black sand layer. According to Dr Dang Trung Thuan,
in Binh Dinh province, ore can be found just several meters beneath the sand
layer.
The large-scale uncontrollable titanium exploitation has damaged a lot of
beaches in the central region.
Tien Phong