Quang Ninh uses mine waste for construction to save the planet

Quang Ninh (VNS/VNA) - Going green with construction work, TKV, a unit of Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin), started recovering its mine waste with soil and rock for levelling of civil and industrial works at Suoi Lai mine in Quang Ninh province recently.

Director of Quang Ninh Coal Processing Company - TKV Ngo Xuan Truong said: "The use of waste rock will contribute to reducing the height and area occupied by the waste dumps and reduce exploitation and use of natural hills, minimise negative impacts on landscape and environment."

The transformation is consistent with the economic transformation model from brown to green in Quang Ninh province and developing sustainably according to the circular economy model.

After the end of land and rock recovery from the waste dumps, cleaner land will allow for infrastructure and industrial parks to be built according to the province's traditional model of the coal industry.

Vinacomin has assigned TKV to plan areas for waste soil and rock from coal mining and processing that can be used as sanding materials, ground levelling, building materials, and using and trading waste soil and rock after obtaining the permission of the State and local management agencies.

The company has signed economic contracts to provide land and waste rock for projects, including Cua Luc 3 Bridge and Coal Industry Urban Area. It continues to negotiate signs with project owners/contractors.

The demand for building materials for civil, industrial, service and tourism projects increased. In the period from 2021 to 2025, the demand for levelling materials to develop the land fund for the socio-economic development of registered projects was about 640 million cu.m in the local area. By 2030, the demand for levelling materials for registered projects will be about 1.02 billion cu.m.

From the process of mining coal by the open-pit method for decades, excavated and waste soil and rock have been dumped into landfills at more than 1 billion cu.m with a very large area of land.

Currently, an annual amount of soil and rock excavated and dumped more than 150 million cu.m, partly to fill in the mining pits, improve the waste layers, and improve and restore the environment.

Earlier, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment agreed in principle to allow the Vietnam Coal-Mineral Industry Group to recover and use wasteland and rock from the waste dump during coal mining at Suoi Lại mine to as levelling materials for construction projects in Quang Ninh province at the total volume of3.5 million cu.m. The implementation period was until the end of this year.

The group was asking MoNRE for an extension until the end of 2025./.