Inadequacies in stone exploitation in Trang Son commune (Do Luong)

(Baonghean)Illegal stone mining in Trang Son - Do Luong, although it has been going on for decades now, the quarry owners have divided the "public mining sites" with an increasingly large scale, but it is rarely handled by the authorities, causing public opinion to raise many questions?

Messy mining

Approaching the People's Committee of Trang Son commune around 10:00 am, we were startled by a series of mine explosions and dense dust and rocks.

In this quarry area, people opened a road about 5 meters wide with graded gravel to transport stones. Cars and tractors drove in and out in droves to transport stones. The sound of stone crushers roared, stone dust filled the air. Workers labored to lift stones, drill stones under the roofs of the pits with frog-shaped stones hanging above, which could collapse at any moment.

The “mine wardens” use explosives and mechanical equipment day and night to “cut” the rocks, leaving some areas of the mountain “scraped bare”, others dug up and looked as devastated as a battlefield. According to local people, the “mine wardens” here are mainly people from Do Luong district, divided into more than 10 “wharfs” to manage. Each wharf has stone crushing systems, employing more than 10 workers to work all day.

It is known that dozens of households live close to Trang Son cliff, the rock cliff in the garden area of ​​each house is the person who benefits. They exploit the rock themselves or rent it out. In this area, mainly the people rent it out, or cooperate with outsiders, these subjects have the task of finding explosives themselves and have the machinery and equipment to exploit it.

The particularly dangerous thing about the Trang Son cliff is that the yards are divided into close boundaries, each doing their own thing, just like the Co cliff quarry in Nam Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) before. The "mine supervisors" worked on a large scale, competing with each other, mining from the bottom up, creating countless frog jaws, and rocks and soil collapsed in many places. Around mid-September 2012, in the cliff area that Mr. D's family rented to "Huong Treo" to mine rocks, the entire cliff roof of about 500m3 of rock collapsed, terrifying the people living close to the cliff.



The collapsed rock area exploited by "Huong Treo" buried 2 rock drills.

Ms. K, who lives next to the cliff, is still scared and said: Luckily, the cliff collapsed at night. If it had happened during the day, more than 10 workers there would have been buried in the rocks. We passed through the "dust cloud" to reach the area where the rocks had collapsed due to mining. There were about 10 "stone workers" loading crushed rocks onto trucks. Amidst the loud sound of rock drills, "Huong Treo" told us with a regretful expression: The rocks buried 2 rock drills. We have been digging for 2 days now but have not found them. Some people told us more: By digging the frog's jaw, the rocks collapsed, so it doesn't cost much money for blasting and there is still rock to sell.

Accident warning

At Trang Son cliff, in addition to quarrying stones, people also freely exploit gravel. Trucks come in and out continuously to transport soil. Some locals said that construction companies come here to buy soil to fill roads. In the mountainous area, excavators used half the mountain to get gravel.

Going around Trang Son cliff, we saw the stone wharfs operating busily and there was absolutely no sign of the authorities checking, even though the quarry was less than 300m from Trang Son People's Committee. It is worth mentioning that the "stone workers" were all farmers, not trained in stone mining. They climbed up the cliff to drill stone without any protective gear. Mr. P, a "stone worker" confided: It's all for a living, if we don't work in the stone industry here, we don't know what else to do...

The mines exploded and rocks flew, scaring hundreds of households in hamlets 3, 4, and 5 living around the cliff. Not to mention that all year round, the people here have to suffer from rock dust pollution.

What makes public opinion indignant is the illegal stone mining that has been going on for a long time right next to the commune People's Committee, less than 3 km from the district center.

Mr. Luong Van Toan - Chairman of Trang Son Commune People's Committee explained: The commune coordinates with the district to regularly inspect illegal stone mining activities, handle and confiscate all kinds of stone crushing machines. As for the problem of mines still exploding in the compacted area, perhaps they buy them illegally and in small quantities.

Public opinion hopes that the authorities will soon take measures to rectify illegal stone mining activities in Trang Son-Do Luong.

Dinh River