Based on information reported by local people, VietNamNet reporters were present at the coffee plantation of Mr. Pham Van Thuy (77 years old, Hop Thang village, Ia Drang commune, Chu Prong district, Gia Lai province).

Here, a corner of the front garden has been dug up, creating a deep hole. Hundreds of large and small rocks have been quarried and stacked on top of each other, lying scattered along the entrance.

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Mr. Thuy's garden is no different from an illegal stone quarry. (Photo: Contributor)

Although no workers were seen mining, many traces were left showing that there was a phenomenon of splitting rocks to make construction materials such as setting up sunshades, pulling electric lights, and many very new drilling and chiseling marks on the rocks.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Pham Van Thuy, the owner of the coffee plantation, said that 2 months ago, his family hired someone to dig a pond to get water for watering the plants. During the process of digging the soil, they encountered many large rocks. At that time, a man named T. in Chu Prong town heard the news and raised the issue of exploiting these rocks.

“My family only dug a pond to get water, and Mr. T. took care of the stone processing. Currently, this area is no longer exploited, we only split the stone into pieces and transport them away...”, Mr. Thuy said.

According to Mr. Thuy, around 5:30 p.m. every day, a group of people come to split large rocks into building stones. Because they work late and are afraid of affecting people's sleep, and are complained about, the group of people who split rocks only work until 8:30 p.m., and sometimes they stop at 9 p.m.

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There are about 300 basalt rocks with diameters from 0.5 - 1m, equivalent to about 150 - 170m3 remaining at the scene. (Photo: Tran Hoan)

“Each session, a person can split 400-500 stones. Depending on the number of people working, on average, they can make over 2,000 stones per night. Once finished, they load them onto a truck and take them away, leaving nothing behind,” said Mr. Thuy.

According to PV's research, depending on size, each stone is sold for 3,000 - 4,500 VND.

Regarding illegal stone mining, Mr. Trinh Quoc Thanh, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ia Drang Commune (Chu Prong District) said that while digging a pond to store water for agricultural production, Mr. Pham Van Thuy discovered rocks at the bottom of the pond, so he used an excavator to bring them up and gather them in the garden.

According to Mr. Thanh, the pond area being dredged is about 1,600 square meters, located on part of plot 04, map sheet 69, currently used for perennial crops (coffee).

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These rocks were split into pieces and transported out of the area (Photo: Tran Hoan)

The Chairman of the Ia Drang Commune People's Committee informed that on January 5, the Commune People's Committee conducted an inspection and verification in the field. Through the count, there were about 300 basalt rocks, with diameters ranging from 0.5 - 1m, estimated to be equivalent to about 150 - 170m3 of rock.

Mr. Thanh also said that he had asked Mr. Pham Van Thuy's household to stop digging the pond and strictly prohibit transporting rocks out of the location so that the Commune People's Committee can inspect and handle them according to the provisions of law.

Regarding the above issue, Mr. Le Tan Hieu, Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Chu Prong district, said that the district has received the information and has issued a document assigning Ia Drang commune to inspect and report the incident.

According to Mr. Hieu, the difficulty of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Chu Prong district is that no one has expertise in minerals, so they are waiting for Ia Drang commune to inspect and determine the volume to make a treatment process.

Mr. Hieu affirmed that to exploit minerals, one must be licensed, illegal exploitation as above is against the law.