LÀO CAI — The northern mountainous province of Lào Cai has been carrying out inspections to manage the transportation of ore and minerals in border areas.

Some newspapers have recently reported the illegal transport of ore to China via Bản Phiệt Village in Bảo Thắng District.

In response, Lào Cai People’s Committee has set up a special team to inspect the border trade.

The team have been checking warehouses in the border area and along the Nậm Thi River, which are often stop-off points for traders.

In a warehouse, the team found substances which were suspected as ores.

After checking, Deputy Chairman Lê Ngọc Hưng who led the team requested the Border Guard, Customs, Police, relevant offices and local governments of districts which had borders with China to rectify border management activities to control the illegal ore transportation including monitoring the warehouses in border areas.

The warehouses, where banned goods such as ores and minerals are found, would be subjected to strictly punishment, including closing the businesses.

Previously, some mass media released video clips on illegal transportation of ores at night across the border in Bảo Thắng District.

The clips showed thousands of people were taking part in the transportation at night and several warehouses storing ores were built up along the road.

Every day, about 2pm, the ores were loaded up in trucks which waited until 8pm to start travelling across the border.

About 70 trucks transported the ores across borders every night.

According to local people in Bản Phiệt Village, the illegal transport has been occurring for years but has not yet been tackled properly by the authority.

However, Hoàng Chí Hiền, chairman of People’s Committee of Bảo Thắng District said: “I had not heard about the illegal transport of ores in the district before.”

The district was asked to check the illegal ore transportation and report to the provincial authotiry today.

The Prime Minister has recently issued a decision on ores and minerals exploitation including banning the export of some raw ores and minerals. — VN