Vietnam conglomerate Thaco eyes $4.2 bln Central Highlands bauxite project

Thaco Group, a leading Vietnamese private conglomerate, is looking to implement a VND103,024 billion ($4.23 billion) project to exploit and process bauxite in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

The project is envisaged as a circular economy initiative including bauxite ore exploitation, processing of alumina and aluminum, environmental restoration, tree planting, farm produce processing, an aluminium factory, and tourism activities.

The investment will include VND50,042 billion ($2.05 billion) for machinery and VND23,409 billion ($960.17 million) for construction.

The firm hopes to receive project approval in March 2024, construction plan approval in September 2024 and complete land-related procedures in July 2025. It plans to begin construction of the project’s first phase, which will create an annual capacity of one million tons, in August 2025. The first phase is to be completed in January 2028.

Work on the second and third phases that will increase annual capacity to two and four million tons a year is set to begin in 2029 and 2032, respectively.

Based on estimated mine reserves of 178 million tons, Thaco targets exploitation for 20 years, paying VND4.8 trillion ($196.88 million) to the state budget annually and employing 4,000 people directly. It calculates total post-tax profits at VND570 trillion ($23.38 billion) and capital recovery in 11 years.

Since the alumina factory has an operational duration of 50 years, Thaco plans to continue its operations after the 20-year period, using ores from outside the mine.