A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on mining and processing rare earthin northern Lai Chau province’s Tam Duong district was signed withJapan on May 18.
Under the MoU signed between the LaiChau-VIMICO Rare Earth Joint Stock Co. and the Japanese Dong Pao RareEarth Development Co, the project will be carried out in two phases.
The first phase is to research and set up a mine with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year.
Thesecond phase is to negotiate over the establishment of a Vietnam-Japanjoint venture with charter capital of at least 30 percent of theproject’s total investment value.
At a Vietnam-Japan summit inlate 2010, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung chose Japan as the partnerfor cooperation in developing the domestic rare earth industry.
He signed an agreement with Japan ’s Prime Minister Yoshihiki Noda on cooperation in this area last October.-VNA