The risk of running out of a large source of ore will affect the fertilizer and chemical industries.

The declining quality of apatite ore makes it difficult to meet fertilizer standards supplied to the market, causing many difficulties for businesses.

Chairman of Vietnam Chemical Group Phung Quang Hiep - NGOC AN

On December 20, Vietnam Chemical Group (Vinachem) held a conference to implement the national mineral planning according to Decision 866 dated July 18, 2023 of the Prime Minister.

Mr. Phung Quang Hiep, Chairman of Vinachem, said that apatite ore in the production of phosphorus-containing fertilizers plays an important role in ensuring national food security. However, the problem is how to effectively implement the planning, improve product quality, and meet production needs.

Difficulties in implementing planning

From the implementation, Mr. Phung Ngoc Bo, Head of Vinachem Technical Department, said that in Decision 866, apatite is considered a mineral with large reserves, with an important strategy in the period of 2021 - 2030 with nearly 2 million tons. At the same time, there are 10 areas with a target reserve of 260 million tons that are being newly explored.

According to the assessment, Vietnam's apatite supply is in the top 5 in the world. However, the Minister said that the implementation of the 866 plan has certain difficulties. That is, the mining capacity is not suitable with the mining capacity in the granted licenses.

At mine 23, the mining company only mobilized reserves into the mining design with a total volume of 865,435 tons, lower than the planned mobilized reserves of more than 1.3 million tons, causing difficulties in completing licensing procedures.

Not to mention, the boundary coordinates of the mining area according to the planning with the area where the mineral exploitation rights are not auctioned are incorrect. The area with apatite ore is not included in the 866 planning and the planning of the national mineral reserve area. Applying for an exploration license takes a lot of time...

The above situation poses a risk of a shortage of raw apatite ore to maintain the operation of processing plants; a shortage of input materials for fertilizer and phosphate chemical plants. This reality affects the lives and jobs of nearly 10,000 workers in the industry.

Mr. Vu Viet Tien - General Director of DAP No. 2 Joint Stock Company - Vinachem - said that according to the design, the phosphoric acid (PA) production workshop for fertilizer products of DAP No. 2 Factory uses 100% of ore selected from Tang Loong Selection Factory.

Concerns about apatite quality decline, ore may run out by 2040

However, the quality of ore has been declining over the years, the content of harmful metal oxide impurities (Fe ₂ O ₃ , Al ₂ O ₃ , MgO, ...) tends to increase, affecting the company's production activities, especially the quality of fertilizer products, causing difficulties in sales.

To overcome the difficulties, Mr. Tien suggested that it is necessary to soon have solutions to stabilize production to ensure the supply of ore; improve the quality of selected ore; seek solutions to improve conditions, and fully exploit resources when the quality of ore is increasingly declining.

This fact was also brought up by Mr. Nguyen Van Son, Deputy General Director of Apatit Vietnam Company Limited, when he said that maintaining the processing plant is extremely difficult. Because by the end of 2024, the supply of III ore to the processing plants will only be about 30.5 million tons, from 2026, the III ore stockpile will run out, and only 1.4 million tons will be exploited.

At the same time, with the current reserves and mining capacity of II ore, the company does not have enough raw materials to build a II ore processing plant. With the current situation, the company cannot meet the ore demand of the units in the group, especially III ore, and it is expected that from 2037 to 2040, it will run out of ore (I, II, III), despite having implemented many technological solutions.

Proposal to remove difficulties in planning and licensing

Vinachem representative proposed Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee to allow Apatite Vietnam Company to explore ore II and obtain mining license at mining clusters 20-22, 23 without auction. Support the extension of mining license at mining clusters 10 and 18; resolve difficulties in site clearance, support land use needs.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade reviews and reports to the Government to adjust the contents that are not in accordance with the 866 planning to remove obstacles. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall soon extend the mineral exploitation license, guide the completion of the application for the exploitation license; propose and report to the Prime Minister to approve the policy of not auctioning, assigning Vinachem companies to implement the projects...

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguy-co-sap-het-mot-nguon-quang-lon-anh-huong-toi-nganh-phan-bon-hoa-chat-20241220113757838.htm