At a working session with the Thanh Hoa provincial authorities some days ago, Mintal Group from Hong Kong, China, expressed willingness to set up a ferrochrome carbon, stainless steel and color metal in Nghi Son EZ. The plant, estimated to cover an area of 300 hectares, costs $2 billion.

Pham Pho, a respected metallurgy expert, commented this is good news for Vietnam’s metallurgy industry.

There is a large chromite mine in Co Dinh, Nong Cong district, and the ore from the mine has been exported in raw firm. If a ferrochrome carbon, stainless steel and color metal plant is built in the locality, Vietnam will be able to export processed products.

In making alloy steel, especially stainless steel, a high amount of ferrochrome is needed to increase durability and hardness.

There is a large chromite mine in Co Dinh, Nong Cong district, and the ore from the mine has been exported in raw firm. If a ferrochrome carbon, stainless steel and color metal plant is built in the locality, Vietnam will be able to export processed products.

The issue is how to deal with the waste water and emissions.

Pho said the emissions would be carbon oxide, nitrous oxide and fine dust, which, if cannot be treated well, will harm the environment.

In general, the total cost for environmental solutions for a metallurgy plant, especially color metal, accounts for 40 percent of total investment capital of a project. Because of the high investment rate, many investors deliberately skip the building of waste treatment works.

Pho stressed that local authorities need to aski' the investor to build waste treatment works and strictly follow issues of labor protection.

An analyst said that metallurgy technology and waste treatment technology available are very good and efficient. Therefore, if the investor accepts to spend money on the technologies, there will be no concern about environmental problems.

Mintal is one of the world’s leading groups in ferrochrome carbon, stainless steel and color metal production. The group has factories that make these products in China, South Africa and Pakistan.

Managers of the group said the group is using the most advanced technologies available in the world – Finnish technology in ferrochrome carbon production and Japanese technology in stainless steel and color metal.

The technologies eliminate all emissions, while waste water will be reused. This saves 1 billion kwh of electricity a year, 90 percent of sulfur discharged into the environment and 75,000 tons of coal a year.

According to Mintal’s CEO, the group needs 300 hectares of premises near the port for the project. In the first phase of the project, the capacity will be 1.5 million tons of ferrochrome carbon a year, and in the second phase, 1 million tons of stainless steel. One million tons of color metal will be churned out.

Mai Chi

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