DSI seizes industrial waste in Chon Buri

The warehouse in tambon Nong Pirun of Ban Bung district was initially charged with possessing the material without a permit in violation of the Factory Act, Minerals Act and Poisonous Substance Act.
Pol Colonel Yannapol Yangyeun, deputy director-general of the DSI, who led the team to search the 20-rai (3.2-hectare) facility, said the piles of red ore that they found could reportedly yield 1,000 tonnes of zinc worth Bt1 billion, as zinc could be sold for Bt30,000 per tonne.
Officials will further inspect the piles, he said. Their origin was unknown but their destination might be China via Laem Chabang Port for zinc extraction.
Kosit Pathomwaruttanapong, 31, the warehouse caretaker, said a man identified only as Fu rented the building from his uncle to store some minerals. Container trucks would come occasionally to pick up the minerals. Noppadol Chewa-issarakul, director of the Chon Buri Industry Office’s Industrial Mineral and Mining Division, who joined the inspection, said it was unlikely that the piles were minerals as the DSI had claimed.
They were likely slag left over from base-metal smelting with some zinc and nickel mixed in, which factories normally stored before doing another round of smelting.
But this could be a breach of the Factory Act because the depot kept hazardous wastes without a permit, he said.