Vietnam jails 23 people over rare earths exploitation
HANOI: A Vietnamese court on Wednesday (May 21) jailed 23 officials and business people over the illegal exploitation and export of rare earths.
The trial comes after the US Geological Survey (USGS) this year significantly revised down its estimate of rare earth deposits in Vietnam, which it once considered the world's second largest.
The nine-day trial in Hanoi saw verdicts handed down to 27 defendants, including former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Linh Ngoc, who was given three years in jail for "violating state regulations causing wastefulness".
Others were given a range of prison sentences – with 16 years being the highest – for a number of offences, including violation of regulations on natural resources exploitation and causing environmental pollution.
Four people were given suspended sentences.
According to the court, the case concerning the exploitation, trade and export of mineral resources was "especially serious".
The court said that a firm called Thai Duong Company was unlawfully granted a mining licence for rare earth exploitation in Yen Phu mine in northern mountainous Yen Bai province between 2019 and 2023.
Defendants involved – including environment officials as well as chief accountants and executives at various companies – sold the rare earths and iron ore from the mine for close to US$30 million, much of it to China.
USGS slashed this year its estimate of Vietnam's rare earth reserves from an estimated 22 million tonnes to 3.5 million tonnes, threatening its ambitions to compete with Beijing in a sector crucial to high-tech devices.
The revision meant the country dropped from the world's second largest reserve holder to the sixth, behind China, Brazil, India, Australia and Russia.
USGS describes mineral reserves data as "dynamic".
Reserves may be reduced as ore is mined or the feasibility of extraction diminishes, or they may continue to increase as additional deposits are developed, USGS says.
Rare earths are a group of 17 heavy metals that are abundant in the Earth's crust across the globe.
But mining the metals requires heavy chemical use that results in huge amounts of toxic waste and has caused several environmental disasters, making many countries wary of shouldering the heavy financial costs for production.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Yageo to meet with Japan's Shibaura Electronics in mid-June
(Corrects location in dateline, paragraph 2 to Taipei, not Kaohsiung) TAIPEI : Taiwan's Yageo will meet with Japan's Shibaura Electronics in the middle of this month in Tokyo to discuss cooperation, Yageo's chairman said on Saturday. Pierre Chen was speaking to reporters at an event in Taipei. Yageo, the world's largest maker of chip resistors, announced an unsolicited tender offer for Shibaura Electronics in February, aiming to acquire full control of the Japanese manufacturer that specialises in thermistor technology.
CNA
5 hours ago
- CNA
Japan trade negotiator says progress made in US tariff talks
TOKYO: Japan had made some progress in a fifth round of trade talks with United States officials aimed at ending tariffs that are h urting Japan's economy, Tokyo's chief tariff negotiator said. "Tariffs have already been imposed on autos, auto parts, steel and aluminum, and some of them have doubled to 50 per cent along with 10 per cent general tariff. These are causing daily losses to Japan's economy," Ryosei Akazawa, said in Washington on Friday (June 6) after talks with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Akazawa declined to say what progress they had made. The latest round of talks may be the last in-person meeting between senior Japanese and US officials before the Group of Seven (G7) leaders summit that starts on June 15, where US President Donald Trump is expected to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Japan also faces a 24 per cent tariff rate starting in July unless it can negotiate a deal with Washington. "We want an agreement as soon as possible. The G7 summit is on our radar, and if our leaders meet, we want to show what progress has been made," Akazawa said. "Still we must balance urgency with a need to guard our national interests," he added. Last month Japan's trade negotiator said US defence equipment purchases, shipbuilding technology collaboration, a revision of automobile import standards and an increase in agricultural imports could be bargaining chips in tariff talks. In a bid to reach an agreement with the US, Japan is also proposing a mechanism to reduce the auto tariff rate based on how much countries contribute to the US auto industry, the Asahi newspaper reported on Friday.
CNA
9 hours ago
- CNA
South Korea's Lee, Trump agree to work towards swift tariff deal, Lee's office says
SEOUL/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung agreed to work toward a swift tariff deal in their first phone call since Lee was elected this week, Lee's office said on Friday (Jun 6). Trump has imposed tariffs on South Korea, a long time ally with which it has a bilateral free trade deal, and pressed it to pay more for the 28,500 US troops stationed there. Separately, Trump allies have aired concerns about Lee's more conciliatory stance towards China, Washington's main geopolitical rival. Lee, a liberal, was elected on Jun 3 after former conservative leader, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached and ousted. The future of South Korea's export-oriented economy may hinge on what kind of deal Lee can strike with Trump, with all of his country's key sectors from chips to autos and shipbuilding heavily exposed to global trade. His term began on Wednesday. "The two presidents agreed to make an effort to reach a satisfactory agreement on tariff consultations as soon as possible that both countries can be satisfied with," Lee's office said in a statement. "To this end, they decided to encourage working-level negotiations to yield tangible results." Trump invited Lee to a summit in the US and they plan to meet soon, according to a White House official. Analysts say the first opportunity for the two to meet could be at a G7 summit in Canada in mid-June. Lee's office said the two leaders also discussed the assassination attempts they both experienced last year as well as their enthusiasm for golf. Lee underwent surgery after he was stabbed in the neck by a man in January last year, while Trump was wounded in the ear by a bullet fired by a would-be assassin in July. South Korea, a major US ally and one of the first countries after Japan to engage with Washington on trade talks, agreed in late April to craft a "July package" scrapping levies before the 90-day pause on Trump's reciprocal tariffs is lifted, but progress was disrupted by the change of governments in Seoul. Lee said on the eve of the elections that "the most pressing matter is trade negotiations with the United States." Lee's camp has said, however, that they intend to seek more time to negotiate on trade with Trump. While reiterating the importance of the US-South Korea alliance, Lee has also expressed more conciliatory plans for ties with China and North Korea, singling out the importance of China as a major trading partner while indicating a reluctance to take a firm stance on security tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Political analysts say that while Trump and Lee may share a desire to try to re-engage with North Korea, Lee's stance on China could cause friction with the US. A White House official said this week that South Korea's election was fair, but expressed concern about Chinese interference in what analysts said may have been a cautionary message to Lee. Speaking in Singapore last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said many countries were tempted by the idea of seeking economic cooperation with China and defense cooperation with the United States, and warned that such entanglement complicated defense cooperation.
