The Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) will spur exploitation and raise coal reserves following its ambitious plan to develop the coal industry from 2006-15, towards 2025.

By 2015, Vinacomin plans to complete a survey of the Hong (Red) River coal basin.

The group is also working with a Japanese company to assess by 2010 a 300m-deep coal reserve at the bottom of Quang Ninh coal basin.

Vinacomin estimates that early this year, 1,768 billion tones of coal remained at Quang Ninh, accounting for 43.66 percent of the total coal needed to be surveyed by the company.

In the next few years, Vinacomin will make an effort to renew its survey and mining equipment and to make use of capital resources for coal surveying activities so as to develop coal mining industrial zones in the north.

Source: VietNamNet Bridge