Central highland Dak Nong province is targeting to export alumina from 2010, earning US$100 million annually, the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) newspaper reported, citing a provincial official.
Dak Nong owns bauxite ore deposits of 1.436 billion tons out of Vietnam’s total reserves of 2.7 billion tons, said Tran Phuong, vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee.
Between 2007 and 2015, four alumina production plants will be built in the province, including the 600,000-ton-per-year Nhan Co plant and three others with an annual capacity of between 1.5 million tons and 2 million tons to be based at mines of 1-5, Gia Nghia, Dac Song and Tuy Duc.
The capacity of the plants will be raised to 3 million-4 million tons in 2016-2025 period, Phuong said.
To ensure the transportation of alumina to seaports, the Government of Vietnam has entrusted the country’s top miner Vinacomin to build a railroad that will link Dak Nong, Lam Dong and Binh Thuan by 2015.
The rail route is set to be capable of transporting between 10 million tons and 15 million tons of alumina each year.
Vinacomin will also develop a seaport in Binh Thuan province. The port is scheduled to serve vessels of 30,000-50,000 tons and will be capable of handling 10 million-15 million tons of alumina each year for exports.
The mining company will shortly put into operation a 2-km road that links the Nhan Co alumina plant with the National Highway 14.
The Nhan Co Alumina Joint Stock Company will invest VND100 billion to build a 30-hectare bauxite ore sorting factory with a capacity of 1.8 million tons in the province.
Phuong said bauxite mining and alumina production projects will create a large number of jobs. Producing one million tons of alumina is calculated to need more than 6,700 laborers, including 2,700 direct workers and 4,000 indirect laborers.
Therefore, the four alumina plants with a combined capacity of some 13.2 million tons year in Dak Nong will employ 24,000 workers stably. The entire central highland region that will have eight plants using bauxite ores from 20 mines will provide jobs for around 40,000 people, he added. (People’s Army)
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