On April 19, according to PV's investigation, Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee has just requested to strengthen the management of mineral exploitation, gathering, transportation and business activities in the area; and at the same time resolutely stop violating mines until full procedures are completed according to regulations.
According to Document No. 2916/UBND-KT, 13 sand and gravel mines do not meet mandatory conditions such as land lease procedures, installation of production control equipment... but still organize exploitation, forcing them to stop operating.
Mines are only allowed to resume operations after completely overcoming the existing problems and being certified by functional agencies.
Previously, according to the list in Appendix 3 attached to Document No. 2561/SNNMT-KS of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, there are 13 sand and gravel mining licenses in the province, mainly in the Red River and Chay River areas.
Notably, although under the "request to stop operations" category, in fact, up to 12/13 mines are still being exploited; only one mine of Huong Giang General Service Cooperative has stopped.
The operating units include many businesses and cooperatives such as LHB Dai Viet, Truong Phat, Duc Thinh, Tan Linh Hydropower, An Phuc Yen Bai, Khanh Duy YB, Manh Lam Yen Bai... showing that exploitation activities are still common even though they do not meet legal conditions.
Regarding land procedures, only 5/13 mines have completed land lease. 6 mines have not fully leased according to the plan, and 2 mines have not leased land but are still operating (including one mine that has stopped). This shows that more than 60% of mines have not fully completed land procedures.
In particular, production control is very limited: 12/13 mines have not installed weighing stations and surveillance cameras; only one mine has a control system.
The lack of equipment makes the risk of over-capacity exploitation, resource loss and difficulties in management very high.
In addition, for mines that have been leased land in the exploitation area but have not completed procedures for auxiliary areas and gathering yards, the province requests to immediately stop the gathering and transshipment of minerals in areas that do not meet legal conditions.
Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee requests units to quickly complete dossiers to put eligible mines into operation, ensuring regulations on land, environment and installing output control systems.
At the same time, the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the Provincial Police, the Provincial Inspectorate and local authorities are assigned to strengthen inspection and supervision during the time the mines are temporarily suspended; promptly and strictly handle cases of non-compliance.
From the above reality, it can be seen that the management of sand and gravel exploitation in Lao Cai still has many shortcomings: many mines have not completed procedures but are still operating, the installation of monitoring equipment is almost neglected, while the request to stop operations has not been strictly implemented.
This tightening of management is expected to rectify the situation of mineral exploitation not in accordance with regulations, limit resource loss and improve the efficiency of state management in this field.
