Investors in Vietnam Go for the Gold

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Here's one of those places: Central Vietnam.

The old battle zones from decades ago. That region of the country was hotly contested during what the Vietnamese referred to as The American War.

U.S. troops used to scour the hills for Viet Kong and the North Vietnamese Army. The war has been over for more than 30 years, but the foreigners are now back in those hills looking for something far more lucrative, as NPR's Michael Sullivan reports.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN reporting:

There's gold in these hills. And, while it's too early to call what's happening here a gold rush, a few days ago--a Toronto-based firm, Olympus Pacific Minerals--officially opened a new mine in Quang Nam Province.

(Soundbite of crowd celebrating)

Vietnam might seem an unlikely place to find gold. Not so, says Olympus CEO David Seton.

Mr. DAVID SETON (Chairman and CEO, Olympus Pacific Minerals): They've mined here for over a thousand years. The Chan people discovered gold more than a thousand years ago, and have mined it successfully. The local Vietnamese people have mined it. The French mined it up until the 1940s when World War II stopped them. And then now, we've picked up the ball again and we're continuing the tradition.

SULLIVAN: The Bong Mieu mine operation is relatively modest by world standards. Company officials say they expect output to be just under 30,000 ounces a year. But David Seton says Olympus has just received permission for another, larger mine, nearby.

Mr. SETON: The exciting thing here is that this is just the beginning. This country just has an amazing potential in terms of its mineral wealth. They have oil, gas, coal, bauxite, tungsten, uranium, gold, silver. It just hasn't had the foreign investment to enable these developments to take place on a commercial scale.

SULLIVAN: That investment has lagged because of uncertainty over ownership and seemingly interminable delays for licenses from Communist bureaucracy, at both the state and provincial level--delays Seton says have scared off many.

Mr. SETON: We came here in 1989, looking for gold in Vietnam, and the first project didn't work. We acquired this project off another foreign investor in 1996, who felt that progress was too slow. And we came in here, dug in, and proved that we could do it.

(Soundbite of engine)

SULLIVAN: The new state-of-the-art plant here, is the first modern gold mine to be opened in Vietnam with foreign investment, in over 100 years. It sits on a hill overlooking Bong Mieu village.

Since the French left, mining here has been largely informal and, often, illegal--mostly, local farmers trying to earn a little money on the side. And that illegal mining, says one of the new mine's local partners Nuyen Son Twan(ph), was hard on the environment.

Mr. NUYEN SON TWAN (Gold mine partner): (Through translator) The miners used cyanide and other chemicals and dumped them into the water and elsewhere--and many fish and many animals died as a result. Our new gold mine uses the latest technology to make sure the cyanide and other chemicals are not released into the environment in harmful amounts.

SULLIVAN: In this relatively remote area of central Vietnam, where regular jobs are scarce, the mine employs nearly 200 locals from nearby villages. Some, like 30-year-old Nuyen Nok Son(ph), used to work these hills for themselves.

Mr. NUYEN NOK SON (Employee, Gold Mine): (Through translator) In general, I'm satisfied working here. Before, I did not have a steady job. Sometimes, I'd get lucky and find enough gold to earn a lot in just one day, but I could also go many days without earning anything. Now, I earn about $100 a month, and it's better for me like this.

SULLIVAN: But another worker complains that fewer than half the local hires have contracts and benefits. The rest, he says, are day-laborers with no benefits. Even so, they still earn nearly twice as much as what most locals make as farmers.

(Soundbite of footsteps)

SULLIVAN: In Bong Mieu hamlet, cows and chickens graze in the tiny yards that front the road to the mine just up the hill. Down here, some residents say they're not convinced the mine is as environmentally friendly as advertised.

Ms. VOTEE ANG(ph) (Resident, Bong Mieu): (Foreign language spoken)

SULLIVAN: Forty-year-old Votee Ang complains the air and water used to be better before the mine arrived, and says she now feels tired all the time. Several neighbors say much the same thing, but it may be a case of sour grapes. Many admit they've tried, but failed, to get jobs at the mine. And some complain that the provincial crackdown on illegal mining has put a crimp in their meager earnings. They may get a chance at more work when Olympus Pacific opens its second, and bigger project, nearby in 2008. Michael Sullivan, NPR News.

(Soundbite of music)

INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.

Copyright © 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.