3:07:44 PM | 30/7/2007
Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has recently approved VND2.4 trillion (US$150 million) for a comprehensive geologic study program on the country’s mineral resources from now to 2015, a vision to 2020, government website said Friday.
The program will focus on mapping geological and mineral reserves with the scale of 1/50,000 in 35 selected upland areas covering 75,624 square kilometers in the northern mountainous, central highlands and southern regions.
The program will also estimate reserves coal, iron, copper, zinc and other ores in 62 other areas in northern mountainous, central and central highlands provinces.
Two modern labs are expected to be formed in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to test mineral samples, said the website.
From 2015 on, the program will draw another map of this kind in 15 areas, stretching 38,960 sq. kilometers in the central highlands, northern mountainous areas and northern and southern delta regions.
In May, the government ruled that administrative violations on mineral exploitation will fined between VND100 million (US$6,250) and VND10,000 ($62.50), a step to tighten control over mineral exploitation. (Govt website)
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