Faced with the widespread illegal mineral exploitation in Pi Toong commune (now Muong La commune), Chairman of Son La Provincial People's Committee - Nguyen Dinh Viet has directed relevant units to increase forces to manage the area, especially areas with precious and rare minerals.
Continue to coordinate with the People's Committee of Muong La commune to consolidate documents, evidence, and complete the case file to prosecute as a "one-stop incident to warn the whole region" in accordance with the direction of the Central Government.
According to Chairman of Son La Provincial People's Committee - Nguyen Dinh Viet, minerals are non-ringable resources, valuable assets of the country, playing an important role in socio-economic development, national defense - security and environmental protection.
The management, exploitation and processing of minerals in the province must be strict, and the implementation process must comply with the provisions of law. Cases of illegal mineral exploitation must be handled strictly, objectively, without exceptions, without forbidden areas.
Previously, in June 2025, after receiving information reflecting on illegal gold mining on mass media in Muong La commune, the Working Group of Muong La Commune People's Committee conducted an inspection and made a record of 16 households in Lua and Cang Phieng villages that had lost the status of the land plot, destroyed the land, and were using land for the wrong purpose with a total area of over 11,000m2.
Muong La Commune People's Committee has handled administrative violations against 7 households, 9 households in Lua village have committed to restoring and leveling the excavated and leveled area before July 30, 2025.
According to Conclusion No. 36/KL-TTr dated June 25, 2025 of the Son La Provincial Inspectorate, there are currently a total of 162 mineral mines in Son La province for common construction materials planned according to Decision No. 1676/QD-TTg dated December 25, 2023 of the Prime Minister.
Including 53 construction stone quarries, 66 construction sand mines, 12 brick and fat mine points and 31 filling soil mines.
The conclusion of the Son La Provincial Inspectorate has pointed out the shortcomings and inadequacies in mineral management and exploitation in the province such as the coordination between tax authorities and relevant agencies to collect and pay fees for resource exploitation activities is not yet strict... During the exploitation activities, some units licensed to exploit minerals have exploited outside the licensing scope, exploiting in the wrong exploitation layer system.
The implementation of procedures for land lease, management of gathering wharves, and basic construction of mines by some sand mining units is still limited. Some mineral exploitation units have incorrectly declared output, applied incorrect resource tax prices, and have not updated the price for calculating environmental protection fees... leading to a shortage of tax and fee payments to the State budget.
Through the inspection, the Son La Provincial Inspectorate has advised on 48 fines for violating units, with a total amount of more than 16 billion VND.
