Dak Nong
Vietnam's bauxite capital with 1.78B tonnes (57% of national reserves), receiving $7.3B in aluminum investments to become the national aluminum center by 2030.
Dak Nong exists because the Central Highlands basalt plateaus contain 1.78 billion tonnes of bauxite—over 57% of Vietnam's proven reserves and a portion of the world's second-largest national stockpile after Guinea. This province of 6,510 square kilometers is being engineered into Vietnam's aluminum capital through a $7.3 billion investment program targeting a complete value chain from ore to finished metal.
The formation story is geological: ancient volcanic eruptions deposited lateritic bauxite across the Dak Nong plateau at grades and scales that became strategic only after Chinese demand for aluminum surged in the 2000s. The Vietnamese government approved the Tan Rai and Nhan Co alumina refineries over significant environmental protests; today production has climbed from 3.92 million tonnes (2023) to 4.2 million tonnes (2024) as the first phase of the Dak Nong Aluminum Electrolysis Plant comes online in 2025.
The provincial planning documents lay out the transformation explicitly: by 2030, Dak Nong becomes Vietnam's national bauxite-aluminum center; by 2050, it anchors a post-aluminum industrial ecosystem including value-added manufacturing. State-owned Vinacomin leads development, with two bauxite exploration projects and five refining facilities in the investment pipeline. The goal is vertical integration from red mud (bauxite processing waste) management to aluminum smelting to downstream fabrication.
Meanwhile, the province remains part of the Central Highlands coffee belt. Local farmers like Le Van Quan harvest 20+ tonnes per 4-hectare plot, benefiting from 2025's record coffee prices. Vietnam's coffee exports reached $7.94 billion in the first 11 months of 2025; Dak Nong contributes to this alongside Dak Lak, Gia Lai, and Lam Dong.
By 2026, Dak Nong faces identity bifurcation: agricultural province versus industrial hub. A planned administrative merger with Lam Dong and Binh Thuan would create Vietnam's largest province by area (24,233 km²), potentially concentrating both mineral extraction and highland agriculture under unified planning. The mountain plateau that once grew only coffee may become the mine pit powering Vietnam's aluminum ambitions.