Vietnam has 3,200km of coast, which includes young sand dunes streching from Sam Son (Thanh Hoa) to Ham Tan (Binh Thuan) containing a variety of mineral elements. One of the most valuable minerals is Inmenit (Titanium). Coastal provinces such as Binh Dinh have been mining this element for local use and export.

However, illegal mining by local people and companies has influences on environment and society. The sand dune in Phu My ? Binh Dinh has been selected for piloting a demonstration model of environment-friendly exploring technology. Lessons learned from it will be duplicated to other places.

Binh Dinh is a central coastal province with natural area of over 6,000 square km and population of 1.5 million. Binh Dinh has a variety of natural resources and mineral elements such as gold, lead, zinc, Inmenit, ceramic stones, granit stones, clay. Among its mental elements, Inmenit (Titanium) is rich in quantity and economic value. It is also located in coastal areas which facilitates mining and transport. In Binh Dinh 2006-2010 economic and social development plan, 100,000 tons of Inmenit will be mined and processed to provide material for making Titanium products.

The sand dune in Binh Dinh stretches 100 km from Tam Quan in the North to Quy Hoa (Quy Nhon) in the South with the total area of 5,000 ha. In the dune, there are many Inmenit mines. Four surveyed mines have the capacity of 2 million tons. However, in the past years, the traditional open-cast and illegal mining in Binh Dinh has damaged the environment and biodiversity, scattered radioactive elements, destroyed protected forests and put the coast in danger of erosion.

In the coming years, Inmenit mining in Binh Dinh will certainly be increased both in scale and speed. The biggest challenge is how to mine Inmenit effectively in combination with environmental protection.
Goal: to ensure sustainable development throughout the country and in the Central coastal zone where there is a variety of natural resources and biological zones, and where are also conflicts in using natural resources and in social communities.

Objectives:
- to research the situation of Inmenit mining in Binh Dinh (especially Phu My) sand dune, analyzing its effects on natural and social environment.
- To propose, design and demonstrate the environment-friendly Inmenit mining models, enclosing solutions for effective implementation in order to meet different economic and social objectives and to have sustainable development.
- To evaluate results of the models, draw lessons, print guideline materials, and transfer, recommend mining management to protect the environment, duplicate the models to other places.

Main activities:

- Mapping distribution with comments of Inmenit sites and mines in sand dunes in Binh Dinh.
- Reporting Inmenit mining technology in Binh Dinh, analyzing and evaluating affects of Inmenit mining to the environment and society.
- Designing and building models on environment-friendly Inmenit mining in theory, based on open mining pratices, using inside rubbish dump and recovering ground for plantation.
- Constructing a water dumping system for local people.
- Selecting partners who have capacity and resources to pilot environment-friendly Inmenit mining technology.