The company affirmed that the demand for waste soil and rocks from coal mines as leveling materials for the projects in Quang Ninh province is high and urgent.

Prior to that, on December 23, 2020, the Quang Ninh Provincial People’s Committee assigned Vinacomin to plan the exploitation and use of waste soil and rocks from coal processing as leveling materials for construction works in the locality. To date, Vinacomin has completed planning and zoning for exploitation, use and trade activities.

MONRE in 2008 granted a license to Coc Sau, allowing exploitation of coal with opencast method at the coal seams belonging to Coc Sau mine area in Cam Phu ward of Cam Pha city.

The rocks and soil from the coal exploitation process have been thrown in waste dumps in accordance with the province’s planning.

Besides Coc Sau, Thien Nam JSC has also sent a document to MONRE to ask for permission to use waste soil and rocks from Mong Duong coal mine to produce artificial ground sand to replace natural sand and leveling materials.

According to a representative of Thien Nam, the company, while conducting fieldwork in the dump of Mong Duong Coal Company, has found that waste rocks and soil are suitable to produce artificial sand. The company is running four production lines, each of which has the capacity of 600 tons per hour.

The waste dumps in Quang Ninh province are mostly located in the cities of Ha Long, Cam Pha and Uong Bi and Dong Trieu Town. 

In Cam Pha, besides Cao Son and Coc Sau, many other miners are also carrying out the opencast exploitation and dispose of waste.

The total area of the dumps in Quang Ninh is 4,000 hectares, capable of containing 2,125 million cubic meters of rocks and soil. To date, it has contained 1,375 million cubic meters. Every year, opencast coal exploiters throw 150 million cubic meters of waste.

MONRE has not replied yet. It says it is necessary to follow procedures and the licensing will be given only if it is sure this will be used as building materials.

The mines in Quang Ninh province generate millions of cubic meters of soil and rocks every year. After a dozen years, the total area of the dumps for the waste has occupied thousands of hectares, causing pollution and posing risks of landslides in tge rainy season.

Luong Bang