Chỉ thị 18/2008/CT-TTg

DIRECTIVE

ON STRENGTHEN MANAGEMENT, IMPROVING EXPLOITATION ACTIVITIES IN STONE-PIT FOR EXPLOITATION SAFETY

Activities of stone exploitation for construction materials and for cement production materials with the involvement of organizations, individuals of various economic sectors have not only met the demand of materials for construction work but also created employment for tens of thousands employees in many localities nationwide.

However, there have been some very serious occupational accidents lately in some provinces such as Ha Nam, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Phu Yen, etc. due to stone slides, which caused serious damages of human lives and properties. Inspecting activities of stone exploitation in some localities and examining causes of occupational accidents revealed that activities of stone exploitation presently have many problems and potentially lead to unsafety for human lives and properties. Most of the stone-pits being exploited are of small scale with the exploitation capacity under 100,000 m3/year and the exploitation period not over 5 years; the situation of designing and performing of the exploitation donot follow regulations on safety for open-air stone exploitation is still common. A lot of exploitation organizations, individuals donot meet requirements of professional capacity and mining management capacity; donot fully comply with regulations on management and usage of industrial dynamite materials and regulations on employee recruitment as well as occupational health, safety and environment protection, etc. Besides, State management for activities of stone exploitation also reveals many disadvantages ranging from license issuance, design approval to control and inspect during stone exploitation.

To improve the above situation to ensure safety in exploitation activities, the Prime Minister instructs:

1. People’s Committees of provinces, cities directly under the Center

a) Shall fully inspect all stone-pits being exploited at localities to discover and address problems related to stone exploitation activities. In the short run, there shall be measures as follows:

- Shall temporarily stop the exploitation of mines of potential hazards to safety of human lives and properties. The exploitation should be continued only after the mines fully meet all safety requirements of exploitation activities.

- Shall stop exploitation and apply measures against the reoccurrence of illegal exploitation areas without license; require exploitation organizations to close mines and keep mines in safe working conditions; serious settle violations according to current laws. The outcomes of overall inspections to stone-pits shall be reported to Ministry of Construction before 30 Sep 2008 for the final report to Prime Minister.

b) Shall consolidate design assessment and exploitation licence issuance. Absolutely not to issue licence exploitation if the basic design is not assessed and approved by a competent State organization as according to current laws. Settle serious cases where organizations, individuals violate lawful regulations on assessment, licence regarding activities of stone exploitation. Prioritize, encourage for licensing exploitation types based on industrial scale and with advanced exploitation technology. Limit the licence for exploitation types with small scale with an exploitation capacity under 100,000m3/year, particularly for natural minerals of high reserves.

c) Shall strengthen inspecting and controlling activities of survey, exploitation based on the inter-industry orientation to secure stone-pits to be inspected periodically according to regulations. After inspecting there shall be evaluation and conclusions about the situation of safety in exploitation and violations against regulations on mining design, exploitation processes shall be serious settled; regulations on conditions and capacity of organizations, individuals related to stone exploitation; regulations on occupational safety, management and use of industrial explosion materials, occupational safety and health and other lawful regulations. Shall revoke exploitation licence from organizations, individuals who donot conform and deliberately violate the regulations above.

d) Shall stipulate clearly and specifically duties and competence of professional sub-institutions to help People’s Committees of provinces, cities directly under the Center to exercise State management responsibility for activities of survey, stone exploitation within the locality; shall assign a professional institution as the only body to manage those activities. Organize and guide People’s Committees of districts, towns, cities under provinces; People’s Committees communes, precincts, towns to exercise management measures, protect natural resources of stone minerals and environmental view to secure social security in areas of stone exploitation within the locality.

đ) Shall periodically report to Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Natural resources and Environment and relevant Ministries about the situation of stone exploitation activities within the locality. Shall report immediately problems against or irrelevant with the current lawful regulations to manage survey activities, stone exploitation and related technical codes of practice and criteria.

2. Organizations, individuals involved in stone exploitation activities:

a) Shall seriously exercise current regulations on surveying minerals. The surveying of minerals shall strictly conform to technical standards on surveying geological matters and shall meet all requirements for safety design of mines exploitation.

b) Shall conform to all regulations on development, assessment and approval of designs of mining exploitation according to lawful regulations on investments in public construction projects and other related regulations.

c) Shall ensure that exploitation shall be only allowed after a report is issued to make sure that the mine executive director can meet all required criteria of professional qualification and management and operation capacity according to regulations; shall submit the mining design and an evaluation report on environmental impacts to competent State management institution and complete other procedural requirements according to regulations.

d) Shall organize the exploitation operations exactly according to the approval, technical standards and criteria on safety in open-air stone exploitation. Shall proactively apply advanced exploitation technology, save natural resources and protect environment. Seriously revoke the licence to close mines according to lawful regulations on minerals.

đ) Shall fully conform to regulations on recruitment, labour contracts; social insurance regimes, labour protection and OSH regulations on stone exploitation activities.

e) Shall periodically report according to regulations and report casually when is required for stone exploitation activities to competent State management institutions.

3. Ministries with State management responsibilities for minerals and occupational safety:

a) Ministry of Construction:

- Shall steer, guide, and inspect the development and to exercise the planning of survey, exploitation, processing stone as materials for construction, and cement production.

- Shall strengthen, organize and guide the inspection of activities of survey, stone exploitation as materials for construction and cement production within localities to secure safety in stone exploitation.

- Shall organize and guide the application of advanced technology for stone exploitation to save natural resources, efficient exploitation to secure occupational safety and protect environment.

b) Ministry of Natural resources and Environment:

- Shall lead and cooperate with People’s Committees of provinces, cities directly under the Center to review, improve the issuance of licence for stone survey, exploitation.

- Shall lead and cooperate with relevant Ministries, Sectors to do research, review and modify, supplement lawful documents to regulate activities of stone survey, exploitation.

c) Ministry of Industry and Trade:

- Shall lead and cooperate with People’s Committees of provinces, cities directly under the Center to review and improve the development, assessment and approval of mining design.

- Shall propose modifications, supplement to regulations on conditions to license the usage industrial explosion materials to strengthen the control of conformation to lawful regulations on stone exploitation activities.

- Shall lead and cooperate with Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Natural resources and Environment shall review, modify, and supplement technical standards, criteria applied in activities of survey, stone exploitation to secure exploitation safety.

d) Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs:

- Shall lead and cooperate with People’s Committees in provinces, cities directly under the Center to strengthen inspection and checking the conformation to regulations on labour recruitment, labour contracts, social insurance regimes, labour protection to secure OHS in stone exploitation.

- Shall organize and guide People’s Committees of provinces, cities directly under the Center to strengthen staffs of labour inspection to acquire relevant expertise to meet requirements of inspecting and checking OHS in mine exploitation.

The Prime Minister requires Ministers, leaders of Ministry-equivalent organizations and institutions under Government, Chairpeople of People’s Committees in provinces, and cities directly under the Center, leaders of stone exploitation, and processing organizations within their organization responsibility to exercise this Direction.

The Minister of Construction shall be responsible for regular supervision, adjustment, inspection and shall periodically report to Prime Minister on the situation of implementation of this Direction.

This Direction is effective 15 days after being published in the official gazette./.