Incidents

Mineral mining and processing is one of the most polluting industries. Most incidents in the past had connections to tailings dams and reservoirs created from different mineral processes.

Toxic substances including heavy metals, acids and sulfates from mining waste leak from the dams and reservoirs. They pollute surface and underground water, and have a serious impact on the environment and the community’s health even when the mining and processing activities stop.

A report found that there are 120 tailings reservoirs with 109 dams belonging to 59 ore sorting enterprises operating in 16 out of 63 provinces and cities.

Of the 59 iron ore sorting enterprises, there are 31 iron ore sorting, 15 lead-zinc, 6 tin, 4 copper, 1 apatite ores and 2 bauxite ore sorting enterprises.

Most tailings reservoirs and dams are situated in the northern mountainous provinces. The reservoirs in four provinces of Yen Bai, Bac Kan, Ha Giang and Lao Cai alone account for 50 percent of total tailings reservoirs throughout the country. Bac Kan, with 21 reservoirs, has the highest number of reservoirs.

Most tailings reservoirs and dams are situated in the northern mountainous provinces. The reservoirs in four provinces of Yen Bai, Bac Kan, Ha Giang and Lao Cai alone account for 50 percent of total tailings reservoirs throughout the country. Bac Kan, with 21 reservoirs, has the highest number of reservoirs.

The reservoirs have various capacity from tens of thousands to millions of cubic meters depending on the exploitation capacity. Most of them contain hundreds of cubic meters of tailings.

There are over 10 reservoirs with capacity of over 1 million cubic meters across the country. They belong to seven companies in five provinces – Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Thai Nguyen, Dak Nong and Lam Dong. Of these, eight reservoirs have become operational, containing sludge accounting for 30-100 percent of reservoirs’ capacity.

Four breakdown incidents have occurred since 2014, having serious impact on the environment.

Most recently, the breakdown of the waste water reservoir of the 6666 Industrial Minerals Group in Quang Nam province in 2018 caused pollution to gardens and fields of hundreds of households.

The incidents did not cause death toll, but seriously affected agricultural production and damaged houses.

The state issued legal documents to control and manage the risks from the tailings reservoirs. However, the regulations are not clear.

Most regulations are designed to manage industrial production activities in general, with little regard to specific mineral activities and their potentials' impact on the environment.

National standards are also applied to all industries, with no regard to special characteristics of mineral processing. 

Thien Nhien

Son La Province tries to curb illegal sand mining on Da River

Illegal sand mining on the Da River in the northern mountainous province of Son La has become more and more serious in recent years.

Company fined for illegal sand mining

Central Highlands Dak Nong Province's People’s Committee has fined a company VND130 million (US$5,600) for illegal sand mining, vov.vn online newspaper reported.