VietNamNet: Many scientists said that Vinacomin’s wet mud treatment technology is outdated and recommended to use the dry mud technology, which is said to be safer and more effective. Why is Vinacomin determined to choose the wet mud technology?

From a broad perspective, bauxite will not benefit Central Highlands (part 1)

Nguyen Thanh Liem:

Both technologies are applied in the world and they both have advantages and disadvantages. The selection of mud treatment technology depends on actual conditions of each country. 

The dry mud technology is often used in the areas with low rainfall and high evaporation while the wet mud technology is preferred in the areas with high rainfall and low evaporation. In the Central Highlands, the rainfall is high during the rainy season.

Actually, we chose this technology based on the recommendation of consultants. This technology has been considered by many evaluation councils.

at the request of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.We have asked a Chinese consultant to together with foreign experts conduct further research of the dry mud technology based on the current situation,

Nguyen Thanh Son: Mr. Liem should explain further, otherwise readers cannot understand. The core is that wet mud is more harmful than dry mud. It is related to caustic soda, not to the rainfall or the humidity.

I’m sad that Vinacomin was assigned the implementation of such big and controversial projects but its knowledge about red mud, as Mr. Liem has said, is very vague.

Why is the wet mud technology still applied? It is because aluminum mining has been around for hundreds of years but the current trend is to use the dry mud technology. It is expensive but  is advanced and safe.

It should be made clearthat. regardless of the high rainfall in the Central Highlands,  the problem is that bauxite plants will discharge heavy metals with soda, which can make scalds. Red mud is chemically different from normal mud, not because it is wet or dry due to rain.

Writer Nguyen Ngoc: We should emphasise that bauxite plants are built in the Central Highlands, where I’ve lived  for a total of 50 years. The environmental issues with bauxite plants concern the entire Central Highlands.

There is no natural forest in the Central Highlands at present.how does this fact influence the environment and Vinacomin’s bauxite project?

Secondly, the bauxite plants are located in the south of the Central Highlands, where the rainfall is high.

I’m very surprised that these are big projects but we have not paid attention to changes that we have caused.

Last year, when the rainfall was 500 mm, thousands of big trees were swept away. As the forest has been destroyed, I think the disaster will happen soon. A terrifying flood can occur in the Central Highlands, like it recently happened in the central region.

You said that red mud reservoirs are located in valleys but they are not valleys, but slits between hills. It is very dangerous to contain waste there.

I heard Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen said that we can’t solve problems by theoretical arguments. I don’t agree with him because we are talking about a specific environment. We have destroyed all forest in the Central Highlands. If we continue digging earth there, we will destroy this region to the root.

Nguyen Thanh Son: I would like to give some supplementary opinions. Vinacomin plans to build red mud reservoirs in valleys, which are actually canyons. These are fat areas where local people can grow plants. Moreover, canyons are places with stagnate water and they are often located on faults.

I also want to know how Vinacomin plan to deal with accidents in case they happen.

VietNamNet: Mr. Liem, could you answer Mr. Son and Mr. Ngoc’s questions right now?

Nguyen Thanh Liem: I agree that we have to go into details. I would like to present the principles for choosing the sites for building red mud reservoirs.

We have selected the areas that are not basins, which would contain rain water in that  area, and not water flowing in from other areas.

I also agree that nobody builds red mud reservoirs on faults. If Mr. Son has documents proving that red mud reservoirs are located on faults, please present them. I assure you that there are no faults in the sites we have selected.

We have calculated that with large red-mud reservoirs and high rainfall, the content of soda and alkali will decrease. Red mud is toxic because of the high alkali level/composition?. Red mud will be discharged whenever its alkali is less than level 9.

About the dry and wet mud treatment technology, we have consulted many experts of red mud. We are willing to receive more comments from scientists.

VietNamNet: The former Chair of Vinacomin, Doan Van Kien, said that the economic effectiveness of bauxite projects is 50/50. Why with such low success probability is Vinacomin still keen on these projects?

Nguyen Thanh Liem: The government instructed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to review the economic effectiveness of bauxite projects in the current situation.

I think that Mr. Kien mentioned the high risks of bauxite projects, not simply the arithmetic economic effectiveness. The economic gains of bauxite projects must be reconsidered based on updated information.

VietNamNet: Mr. Liem, as we know, Tan Rai project is progressing slowly. Why? The media recently reported that the construction of the alumina processing plant will be completed before the bauxite mine opens. If it happens, Vinacomin will suffer monthly losses of of $6-7 million. Is that correct?

Nguyen Thanh Liem: It is true that the pace of Tan Rai project is slow. It is scheduled to be finished on November 18 2010 but perhaps this will bedelayed in 3-4 months. We have sped up of the bauxite mining project to keep up with the pace of the alumina plant.

VietNamNet: The bauxite project is said to be the start for the development of big-scale industry in the Central Highlands, which will create many jobs for local people. But why don’t you support this project, writer Nguyen Ngoc?

Nguyen Ngoc: Apart from environmental impacts, I think that this project will have adverse impacts on the Central Highland culture because the culture of this region is based on forest. Once forest is destroyed, there will not have the Central Highland culture.

Regarding job creation, each 2.5 hectares of land used in the bauxite projects, 1 job will be made while 1 hectare for forestry can create five jobs.

In a broad perspective, I think that the bauxite projects are not helpful for the development of this region at all.

We should not think that Dak Nong province will become an industrial province thanks to the bauxite plant.

Nguyen Thanh Son: I would like to give add another opinion. In the next ten years, I’m sure that we will not have the so-called “aluminum industry” because we don’t have sufficient electricity to process aluminum.

With these projects, we will only have bauxite . We can process alumina, a material to produce aluminum, which as Liem said, accounts for 20 percent of aluminum production cost.

Therefore, we should not hope to have the aluminum industry in the Central Highlands.

VietNamNet: Our readers would like to know Vinacomin’s potential alumina clients to be sure about the economic effect of the bauxite projects. Could you disclose some information, Mr. Liem?

Nguyen Thanh Liem: We previously signed an agreement to supply from 600,000 to 900,000 tons of alumina yearly for a Chinese partner. This client recently proposed to buy the entire output of alumina.

The second client is a Japanese group, which also wants to buy a large volume of alumina.

A partner from Benin wanted to cooperate with Vinacomin to process alumina because the power price in Benin is very low.

There are other partners. We plan to sell alumina by auction.

VietNamNet: The last question is, over 2000 intellectuals signed the petition asking the government to halt the bauxite projects. If the government asks Vinacomin to halt the projects for further research, how much in term sof financial losses will Vinacomin suffer?

Nguyen Thanh Liem: We are speeding up these projects to complete them timely under the government’s instruction.

If the projects are halted, the loss will be huge and it will hit not only Vinacomin but also other related provinces.

Thank you very much our guests!

VietNamNet