Vietnam to Invite Foreign Investors to Mine Bauxite in Cao Bang

Foreign investors will be invited to mine bauxite reserves and produce alumina in northern Cao Bang province due to the unavailability of domestic sources, the Vietnam Investment Review newspaper reported.

 

Deputy Prime Hoang Trung Hai last week made the invitation, allowing Cao Bang authorities to negotiate with foreign investors to establish joint ventures to study and mine bauxite deposits in Quang Uyen and Phuc Hoa communes.

 

The Vietnamese side will be the major shareholder in the joint ventures. Additionally, approval for construction of a 50,000 ton capacity alumina production facility will be only granted if the reserves proved viable, Hai said.

 

Preliminary studies indicated that Cao Bang had 29 bauxite reserves with an estimated 180 million tons in the mineral reserves, said Phuong Tien Tan, deputy director of Cao Bang Planning and Investment Department. 

 

Cao Bang had last year licensed private firm Cao Giang, which is backed by An Vien Group, the investor of 71-hectare An Vien resort in Nha Trang, to mine bauxite ores and build a 300,000 ton capacity alumina facility in Cao Bang.

 

“We have to make sure that the existing bauxite ores used as a requisite raw material in Cao Bang will be sufficient to provide to both the Cao Giang’s proposed alumina facility before the second alumina facility is considered,” he said, adding that Cao Giang was now in the process of hiring consultants to start prospecting bauxite deposits over the firm’s permitted deposits. (VIR)