Investigation content on rare earth mineral resources in Vietnam from January 6, 2025

Investigation content on rare earth mineral resources in Vietnam from January 6, 2025​ (Image from the Internet)

On November 21, 2024, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment in Vietnam issued Circular 21/2024/TT-BTNMT stipulating technical investigations, assessments of resources, and exploration of rare earth minerals.

Investigation content on rare earth mineral resources in Vietnam from January 6, 2025

According to the provisions of Article 5 of Circular 21/2024/TT-BTNMT, the content of rare earth mineral resource investigation in Vietnam includes:

- Collecting geological, geochemical, geophysical, weathering crust, remote sensing documents, and other related materials.

- Synthesizing, processing, and analyzing the collected materials and conducting supplementary surveys (if any); justifying, identifying subjects, scope, and combination of investigation methods. Establishing diagrams, maps, geological, and mineral cross-sections.

- Geologically and mineralogically investigating routes combined with gamma and gamma spectrum measurements in areas with rare earth indicators.

- On-site rapid measurement using XRF analysis methods with portable devices or equivalents.

- Excavating works (exposures, pits, trenches, wells) combined with structured gamma measurements.

- Hand drilling.

- Collecting, processing, and analyzing various types of samples.

- Synthesizing documents and analysis results to identify mineralization subjects, rare earth-containing subjects; delineating areas of rare earth mineral distribution and forecasting resources of level 334a.

- Proposing prospective areas for rare earth mineral assessment at a scale of 1:10,000.

Note:

- Rare earth is a common name for a group of 17 elements, including: Lanthanum (La), Cerium (Ce), Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd), Promethium (Pm), Samarium (Sm), Europium (Eu), Gadolinium (Gd), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy), Holmium (Ho), Erbium (Er), Thulium (Tm), Ytterbium (Yb), Lutetium (Lu), Scandium (Sc), Yttrium (Y). (According to Clause 1, Article 3 of Circular 21/2024/TT-BTNMT)

- Primary rare earth minerals are minerals in which rare earth elements exist in mineral matter. (According to Clause 2, Article 3 of Circular 21/2024/TT-BTNMT)

Content of rare earth mineral assessment in Vietnam from January 6, 2025

The content of rare earth mineral assessment in Vietnam is specifically regulated in Article 6 of Circular 21/2024/TT-BTNMT as follows:

- Collecting, aggregating, processing, and analyzing collected materials; justifying, identifying the network, methods, and volume of work items for rare earth mineral assessment.

- Survey work serving geology, geophysics, excavation works, drilling.

- On-site survey routes combined with ground gamma and ground gamma spectrum measurements in selected rare earth prospective areas.

- Structured gamma measurements, core sample gamma, and borehole geophysics to delineate the scale, size of rare earth ore bodies in excavation works, locate ore bodies in boreholes, and determine sample collection points for analysis.

- On-site rapid measurement using XRF analysis methods with portable devices or equivalents.

- For ion-adsorbed rare earth minerals: deep electrical measurement to predict the thickness of weathering crust serving to delineate rare earth prospective mineral areas.

- Excavating works (exposures, pits, trenches, wells), drilling.

- Collecting samples from excavation works, drilling for analysis, determining rare earth content.

- Collecting and analyzing technical samples.

- Identifying hydrogeological-geological-engineering characteristics of rocks in the rare earth mineral assessment area.

- Synthesizing documents and analysis results to delineate rare earth distribution areas eligible for resource calculation.

- Calculating resources of level 333.

- Delineating areas eligible for exploration transition.

- Environmental geology work.

Refer to more details in Circular 21/2024/TT-BTNMT effective from January 6, 2025.

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