Vietnam arrests 6 people, seizes 13,715 tonnes of ore in rare earth case
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Luu Anh Tuan, chairman of Vietnam Rare Earth JSC, was among those arrested.
PHOTOS: REUTERS
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HANOI - Police in Vietnam have arrested six people accused of violating mining regulations, including the chairman of a company at the heart of efforts to develop Vietnam’s rare earth industry, seizing 13,715 tonnes of rare earth ores.
Among those arrested was Luu Anh Tuan, chairman of Vietnam Rare Earth JSC (VTRE), who was accused of forging value-added tax receipts in trading rare earths with Thai Duong Group, which operates a mine in the northern Vietnamese province of Yen Bai, the Ministry of Public Security said on Friday.
VTRE has partnered with Australian mining companies Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) and Blackstone Minerals, which were not involved in the investigation.
Blackstone had agreed to partner with VTRE to win concessions at the country’s biggest mine, Dong Pao in Lai Chau province, it said in a public statement in September.
A Blackstone executive had told Reuters its investment in the project would amount to about US$100 million (S$137 million) should it win the tender, which it expected to be launched later in 2023.
ASM signed a binding agreement in April with VTRE for the purchase of 100 tonnes of processed rare earths in 2023, and committed to negotiating a longer-term supply deal.
Calls to Tuan went unanswered on Friday. VTRE’s office in Hanoi has been shut for days, one person at the building said.
Asked about whether their deals would continue, the two Australian companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Australian embassy in Hanoi declined to comment.
Doan Van Huan, chairman of Thai Duong Group, was also arrested, accused of illegally making 632 billion dong (S$35 million) from the sales of ore extracted from its mine in Yen Bai province.
Calls to Thai Duong Group went unanswered on Friday.
Vietnam is planning to organise auctions for concessions at its largely unexploited rare earth mines, which are considered to contain the world’s second-biggest deposits of the critical minerals used in electric cars and wind turbines. REUTERS
