Quang Ngai is one of the localities with the largest sand reserves in the country, most concentrated on the Tra Khuc River. In fact, Quang Ngai province has planned more than 100 sand mines for common construction materials, spread across the basin of major rivers, with resource reserves of up to hundreds of millions of cubic meters. However, licensing procedures have to go through many steps, so some projects, including the Hoang Sa - Doc Soi road project, have not been licensed despite more than 18 months of construction, but the sand mines designated for service have not yet been licensed.
The above project is invested by the Quang Ngai Provincial Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board, with a total investment of VND 3,500 billion, of which the central government capital is VND 1,300 billion, the rest is the provincial budget.
To facilitate this project, the Provincial People's Committee has identified 9 sand mining locations. However, over the past 18 months, the licensing documents have gone through many prolonged steps, causing many contractors to face additional pressure because the supply of sand materials is not guaranteed.
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, a representative of the Quang Ngai Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board said that the sand mines are classified to serve the project and have not been licensed, so there is no guarantee of sand materials to speed up construction progress, especially for weak soil treatment.
On the other hand, the 2024 Law on Geology and Minerals (effective from July 1, 2025) is likely to affect the licensing of these sand mines (as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 100). It is expected that by June 30, 2025, it will only be possible to complete the procedures for granting exploitation licenses to 4/9 identified sand mines.
Faced with this situation, the project investor has requested the Department of Agriculture and Environment to support construction units to shorten the time to carry out licensing procedures to ensure the supply of materials to speed up the progress of the project. Strive to complete the licensing work before June 30, 2025, the effective date of the 2024 Law on Geology and Minerals.
Advising the Provincial People's Committee to carry out procedures to close 2 sand mines in Tan Phuoc village (Binh Minh commune) and Thach An village (Binh My commune) as a basis for approving the exploration policy for the contractor to construct these 2 sand mines (the Provincial People's Committee has issued instructions in Official Dispatch No. 2528/UBND-KTN dated April 29, 2025).
According to calculations, the Hoang Sa - Doc Soi road project needs about 5.5 million cubic meters of fill soil and construction sand. Of which, the demand for fill exploited at the mines is more than 3.15 million cubic meters, the rest is nearly 644,000m3 of sand.
According to contractors, if the designated sand mines are not granted an exploitation license soon, it will be very difficult for them to speed up the progress. Contractors really hope that the authorities will speed up the licensing so that they can focus on project construction.
