Need to resolve the problems at the two mines in Dien Chau

Illegal exploitation of large area and volume

Digging deeper into the two mines of Thien Hoang Equipment Joint Stock Company and Hoang Phuc Company Limited, licensed to exploit in Dien Loi Commune, Dien Chau District, but exploiting beyond the scope that Nghe An Newspaper reported in the issues published on August 14 and 29, 2024. In fact, we found that there are still many issues that need to be resolved.

According to the minutes of the meeting between the inspection team of Dien Chau District People's Committee and the local government of Dien Loi Commune and two mining units on July 30, 2024, it shows that: The main task of the inspection team of Dien Chau District People's Committee is to inspect and work on mineral exploitation, land management, construction and ensuring order and traffic safety related to the mine in Dien Loi Commune (handling proposals and recommendations of Thien Hoang Equipment Joint Stock Company and Dien Chau District Police). But when inspecting, more serious problems were revealed.

Previously, on June 25, 2024, Thien Hoang Equipment Joint Stock Company personally made a "SOS Petition" to the District Party Committee and People's Committee of Dien Chau district regarding the issue of completing, renovating and upgrading the road to the mine. According to this petition, at 8:00 a.m. on June 25, 2024, the People's Committee of Dien Loi commune sent a working group consisting of representative departments and branches of the commune to set up poles, block the road to the mine of the enterprise, and at the same time send people to block the mine's mining vehicles from entering the mine area to serve production.

Returning to the inspection by the People's Committee of Dien Chau district on July 30, 2024, at this inspection, the People's Committee of Dien Loi commune reported the problem of heavy trucks carrying soil from 2 mines causing damage to roads, causing dust, affecting people's lives (especially students going to school) and causing traffic insecurity; not to mention the irregular watering that caused environmental pollution.

Dien Loi Commune People's Committee also admitted that there was an incident where people blocked the road, preventing vehicles carrying materials from entering the mining area on June 25-26, but it was later dismantled and the units continued to operate.

It is worth mentioning that the People's Committee of Dien Loi commune directly stated the current situation of the exploitation scope of the two mines. Accordingly, both companies have exploited outside the boundary of the mines that have been granted land by the competent authority. The People's Committee of the commune has worked with and requested to stop the exploitation outside the scope, but the units still deliberately violated.

Immediately after that, the on-site inspection team confirmed the reports of the local authorities. In which, both mines are operating, a part of which is outside the assigned mine boundary. As for the mine of Thien Hoang Equipment Joint Stock Company, the boundary has been lost.

According to the information we have, after the People's Committee of Dien Chau district issued Document No. 2173/UBND-TNMT on urging the preparation of records to handle violations of the law on mineral exploitation activities for 2 mines in Dien Loi commune, the People's Committee of Dien Loi commune coordinated with the North Central Geological Federation to measure and determine the volume of violations by the 2 above-mentioned units.

On September 6, the People's Committee of Dien Loi commune sent Report No. 409/BC-UBND to the People's Committee of Dien Chau district on the volume of violations of 2 mines in the area. Accordingly, Thien Hoang Equipment Joint Stock Company exploited beyond the first land lease area (located within the second land lease license area but has not completed the land allocation procedures), with an area of ​​2.08 hectares, the calculated volume of violations is 114,000m³.

As for Hoang Phuc Company Limited, this unit has also exploited beyond the licensed boundary and area with an area of ​​more than 2 hectares; volume of over 100,000m³.

However, the local authorities are still completing the record of administrative violations. The level of handling and punishment remains to be seen.

Need to resolve once and for all

Through our observations and actual surveys on the route from the two mines to the landfill area (located next to N2 road), as well as according to the report of the People's Committee of Dien Loi commune and the opinions of local people where the soil transportation route passes through, the mining and transportation units with many heavy-duty vehicles cause damage to the road, causing dust, affecting people's lives (including on the asphalt road DH.256 through the center of Dien Loi commune).

At the meeting on July 30, 2024, Mr. Nguyen Duc Tu - Secretary of the Party Cell of Hamlet 6, Dien Loi Commune, commented that local people strongly support the State's policy on mining and road construction. However, during the implementation and transportation process, many heavy-duty vehicles cause damage to the road, create dust, pollute the environment, affect people's lives, and make it unsafe to participate in traffic.

Mr. Tu said that on June 25-26, 2024, people blocked the road and blocked mining vehicles. In fact, the people of Hamlet 6 were the ones who had to "call for help". The Party Committee and the People's Committee of the commune were very concerned, about 8 times organizing meetings with businesses to request mining units to comply with regulations and avoid affecting the people.

Mr. Phan Binh - Secretary of the Party Cell of Hamlet 5, said that the transportation of the units was too much, causing environmental pollution and affecting people's lives. This was also the reason why people blocked the road.

After the People's Committee of Dien Chau district inspected two mines in Dien Loi commune, the Dien Chau district police also organized many inspection and control teams, arranged for weight scales to check the weight of vehicles before leaving the mine. Strictly handle violations related to the transportation of oversized and overloaded goods, and expanding the size of the vehicle's body; at the same time, organize the signing of commitments with vehicle owners, mine owners, and drivers.

In addition, in Dien Loi commune, on March 19, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 599/QD-UBND approving the plan for the first auction of mineral exploitation rights in 2024 in Nghe An province. Accordingly, the Provincial People's Committee will conduct an auction of mineral exploitation rights for 2 land mines for filling materials without exploration results, reserve and quality assessment in Dien Loi commune, Dien Chau district. Of which, 1 mine has an area of ​​17.6 hectares, and 1 mine has an area of ​​22.55 hectares.

If the auction and licensing are completed, there will be 4 mines in Dien Loi, not to mention a number of other key projects that will also be implemented in this locality.

Obviously, with what happened to the two mines of Hoang Phuc Co., Ltd. and Thien Hoang Equipment Joint Stock Company, the local authorities must draw profound lessons in management. First of all, it is necessary to strictly and decisively handle the violations that the two mine owners committed when illegally mining beyond the licensed boundary; at the same time, it is necessary to review the capture and handling of information reflected from the grassroots. Because the People's Committee of Dien Loi commune reported this incident in writing since the beginning of June 2024, but it was not until the end of July that the inspection team of the People's Committee of Dien Chau district went to inspect, and again inspected and handled other contents as mentioned above.

In addition, it is also necessary to thoroughly handle the shortcomings in transporting materials, as people have reflected, to avoid conflicts, especially when in the future there will be more mines and projects deployed in this locality.