3 titanium companies ordered to stop operations
The central province’s environmental department has ordered three titanium exploitation companies to suspend operations, which have continued for the last three years despite expired licences. The three companies – Mỹ Tài Co Ltd, Tấn Phát Co Ltd and Ban Mai Production & Commerce Co Ltd – were only granted permission by the province’s People’s Committee to carry out mining activities until the end of 2013, according to Huỳnh Quang Vinh, deputy head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DoNRE). Once this period was over, the local authorities asked the three companies to complete environment restoration at the exploited area by the end of August 2015. However, the three companies defied the order and continued to hire workers and deploy heavy machines to extract titanium at the site in Phù Mỹ District, prompting anger of the locals.
