The National Assembly (NA) on December 1 discussed a draft law amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Geology and Mineral Law, during which many NA deputies expressed strong agreement with the addition of a separate chapter on rare earths to the draft law, recognizing rare earths as a particularly important resource that requires unified national management aligns with the country's long-term development needs.
MANDATORY TECHNICAL SAFETY THRESHOLDS NEEDED
According to Deputy Trinh Thi Tu Anh (Lam Dong Province's National Assembly Delegation), the draft law should affirm the principle of managing rare earth resources based on scientific foundations and strict risk control, with the highest requirements for environmental protection. She proposed mandatory technical safety thresholds, such as closed-loop separation technology, radiation dispersion modeling, continuous monitoring systems, waste sludge treatment plans meeting IAEA standards, and environmental restoration requirements post-extraction from the licensing stage.
"Only enterprises with technological capability, financial capacity, and international-standard environmental management systems should be allowed to participate," emphasized the Deputy. Additionally, she suggested emphasizing the role of independent oversight throughout the entire chain of rare earth selection, separation, and processing activities, from technology appraisal, risk assessment, field inspection, to waste treatment supervision and environmental restoration.
Regarding this issue, Deputy Nguyen Tam Hung (Ho Chi Minh City's National Assembly Delegation) proposed considering and clearly supplementing a mechanism for controlling exports and minimum domestic deep processing ratio. This aims to ensure that rare earths truly serve as a strategic resource for national industrial development, avoiding the risk of raw exports and dependence on foreign technology in the rare earth value chain.
According to Deputy Hung, the draft law does not clarify a mechanism for selecting enterprises to explore, exploit, and process rare earths based on technology security criteria, deep processing capacity, and environmental management capacity; while this is a sensitive field with the risk of resource acquisition or leakage of foundational technology.
"Therefore, it is necessary to consider adding an economic-technology security approval process before transferring technology, exporting deep-processed products, or international joint ventures; to ensure resource sovereignty - national economic security - self-reliance in the rare earth industry," he added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap Province's National Assembly Delegation) emphasized that while other minerals may still be abundant, rare earths are very limited, with not much reserve. If exploited without strict management and stringent protection measures, it will easily lead to indiscriminate exploitation. Therefore, he suggested that the drafting agency and environmental management agency pay attention to and manage rare earths well, with policies in place to protect rare earths.
EARLY ISSUANCE OF NATIONAL STRATEGY ON RARE EARTHS
In response to the National Assembly Deputies' opinions, Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Duc Thang stated that the Geology and Mineral Law was issued in 2024 and took effect from July 1, 2025. The current amendment mainly focuses on resolving certain obstacles and bottlenecks related to national key projects and programs, and the strategy for managing, exploiting, and using rare earth resources to serve national development.
According to the minister, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has basically delineated and fully identified areas with mineral deposits for strict management. The Ministry is drafting a national strategy on rare earths, to be submitted to the Government and competent authorities for issuance in early 2026.
After completing the delineation of mine locations, the crucial task now is to commence deep processing to bring benefits to the country. "The draft law separates the 'rare earths' section into a separate chapter, with provisions for the Government to issue sub-law documents that will concretely regulate the management, exploration, exploitation and use of rare earths as an important resource for national development in the future, based on forming a closed value chain, minimizing raw material exports," Minister Tran Duc Thang added.
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