Under the scheme, the TKV is allowed to set up a joint stock company in which 40 percent of its stake will be sold to foreign partners and nine percent to the public. The group will keep the remaining 51 percent to hold the control right of a majority shareholder.

The permission will enable the mining giant to invite the Alcoa group of the US to buy up to 40 percent of shares of the Nhan Co aluminium production project in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong, with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year.

It will also be able to sell to the Yunnan Metallurgy Group of China at most 20 percent of the stock of a bauxite-aluminium project in Lam Dong province, also in the Central Highlands.

The Government also asked the TKV to submit detailed explanations for its joint-venture plan with the BHP group, under which the BHP will contribute 49 percent to a railway project stretching from the Central Highlands to the south central province of Binh Thuan and 10 percent to a bauxite mining and processing project in Cambodia.

The group will also take part in mining and processing bauxite in Cambodia, contributing 10 percent to the investment.