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TAM DAO — The owners of illegal mines are under fire, accused of making their fortunes by exploiting workers, poisoning a large area of protective forest and wreaking serious environmental damage.

Many miners eke out a miserable living exploiting tin ore, while the mine owners sit by and watch their fortunes mount.

The northern province of Thai Nguyen’s Dai Tu District houses hundreds of mines.

But the mines in this region are not what one would assume: there are no pit-props and workers must grope their way along dark paths.

Miners have nothing more than a hand-held electric lamp and a pick, with which they must dig for their quarry.

They have no labour safety equipment and not even the most rudimentary ventilation shaft.

The miners work in shifts, the day shift lasting from 7am to 5pm and the night shift from 6pm to 4am.

Most of them are so exhausted once they finish their work that they can do little more than sleep to recover their health before the next shift. This tiresome routine causes some workers to joke that they are residents of Hell.

"We work in Hell and come back to earth only to eat," says Nguyen Van Ninh, a 19-year-old miner.

The work is hard and there is no compensation in case of death or accident, but the labourers do not earn much. Most bring home just VND200,000-300,000 a month.

Worse still, many miners are effectively quarantined inside the earth – locked in by a bamboo screen that ensures they cannot leave and while away their time outside.

"Curiosity killed the cat. We don’t want other owners to lay their covetous eyes on our ore bed," said Nguyen Thi Hoa, a 29-year-old mine owner.

"It also means our workers are always on the job, inside the mine." Hoa and her sister are currently governing a large area of land and have about 100 miners on their books.

They are among several female mine owners who are said to be rich and notorious for the bad conditions their labourers work under.

The tin ore mines in Son Duong and Dai Tu districts actually fall under the jurisdiction of Tam Dao National Park.

But Nguyen Huu Tho, deputy director of the park, said repeated crackdowns have failed to deter the mine owners.

"The park has tried its best to expel the miners out of its area. But our efforts are being hampered by the actions of the Son Duong Tin Enterprise," he said.

The firm still claims the right to mine tin ore in the area, even though its term of operation has expired.

Defiantly, the enterprise keeps granting licences to bogus owners who then hire labourers and mine at will.

"The enterprise has been in operation for 37 years and is simply extracting tin ore left on its previously allotted land," said Vu Hai Duong, director of Son Duong.

"We have to sign individual contracts to exploit the mineral."

The enterprise has sustained losses for many years and now contracts exploitation out to private traders.

Son Duong then purchases the tin ore from the private operators and resells it to Thai Nguyen Non-Ferrous Metals Company for a profit.

Unfortunately, the profits are barely enough to service the administrative apparatus of Son Duong. It is the private traders who get increasingly rich.

Meanwhile, water discharged from the mines has flooded most of the cultivated land in Son Duong’s Hop Thanh Commune.

The regular water supply is also likely to be heavily contaminated.

Authorities are also worried by the emergence of social evils and a lack of security at the mine sites.

Locals want to see the mines shut down. They say this is the only way to stabilise living conditions and protect the environment. — VNS

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