Under the newly-approved decision, four titanium ore areas will be formed to supply raw materials for manufacturing facilities.

They include Area 1 in Thai Nguyen province (original ore and grey sand layer); Area 2 in Ha Tinh-Thua Thien Hue provinces (grey sand layer); Area 3 in Quang Nam-Binh Dinh-Phu Yen provinces (grey sand layer) and Area 4 in Ninh Thuan-Binh Thuan provinces (grey and red sand layer).

By 2015, ores in Thai Nguyen, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Binh Dinh, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces will be fully explored to supply raw materials for domestic use.

Area 4 will be explored for large-scale exploration and manufacture.

In the 2016-2020 period, new ores will be exploited in Thai Nguyen, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces.  

New projects will be developed after 2020 basing on the real conditions like consumption market, capital, infrastructure and processing capacity.

Viet Nam is forecast to have a total reserve of around 650 million tons of titanium of which 92% is located in the southern province of Binh Thuan (with 599 million tons).  

The country plans to mobilize around 150 million tons of minerals (including 17million tons of zircon) for consumption. The rest will be exploited for national reserve./.

By Khanh Phuong