Mining companies buy insurance for more than risk transfer: some covers are legal conditions for operating the mine, others are conditions of project lending, and the rest are pure governance choices. Confusing the three groups produces two opposite errors — missing compulsory cover draws penalties, while buying cover that never pays wastes premiums. This article classifies mining insurance in Vietnam along exactly those three groups.
Three insurance groups for a mining company
- Legally compulsory — fire and explosion insurance: facilities with fire/explosion hazards (explosives magazines, fuel stores at the mine) must buy compulsory fire and explosion insurance under Decree 105/2025/ND-CP (replacing Decree 23/2018/ND-CP, expired since 6 September 2023; as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP) — citing Decree 23/2018 as current law is an effectiveness error to avoid.
- Duties delivered through the labour regime: miners’ occupational accidents and diseases are paid through compulsory social insurance (the occupational accident and disease fund) plus the employer’s compensation and allowances under OSH Law 84/2015/QH13 — not commercial insurance, but the first financial protection layer when an accident strikes.
- Commercial covers by choice and lender requirement: mine property, business interruption, third-party liability and environmental liability insurance. LEP 72/2020/QH14 encourages environmental-damage liability insurance for high-risk activities, but for mining this remains chiefly a lender and counterparty requirement, not an operating licence condition.
- Read environmental payout limits closely: environmental liability policies typically exclude gradual pollution and cover only sudden incidents; a mine’s accumulated environmental harm — the commonest kind — often sits outside cover unless specifically negotiated.
Auditing a mining project’s insurance programme
- Build the compulsory list asset by asset: explosives magazines, fuel depots, substations — checked against the compulsory fire/explosion facility list in Decree 105/2025’s annexes as updated by Decree 347/2026.
- Match policy wording to the mine’s real risk map: tunnel collapse, magazine fire, tailings failure, internal haul-road accidents — any risk absent from policies needs a matching internal reserve, not an assumption that insurance covers everything.
- Synchronise insurance with contractor contracts: drilling, blasting and ore-haulage contractors must carry their own cover with proper waiver-of-subrogation clauses, so two policies do not sue each other after one accident.
A good mining insurance programme starts from the obligation map: what is compulsory and penalised if missing, what lenders require, and what is a choice. Reviewing along these three layers yearly — in step with text changes like Decrees 105/2025 and 347/2026 — avoids buying what is unneeded while missing what inspectors check first.
Frequently asked questions
What insurance must a mining company buy?
Compulsory fire and explosion insurance for fire-hazard facilities (explosives magazines, fuel stores) under Decree 105/2025/ND-CP (amended by 347/2026), and compulsory social insurance including the occupational accident and disease fund for employees.
Does insurance pay when a mine pollutes the environment?
Only where environmental liability cover exists and the incident falls within the policy — standard policies pay for sudden incidents and exclude gradual pollution. The duty to compensate and remediate toward the State and residents stays with the operator regardless of insurance.
How are tunnel accidents paid for?
The worker receives occupational-accident benefits from the social insurance fund (allowances, medical costs under the OSH Law and Social Insurance Law), while the employer owes its own compensation and allowance share; supplementary commercial cover, if any, pays per policy terms above that.
Can Decree 23/2018 on fire insurance still be used?
No: Decree 23/2018/ND-CP expired on 6 September 2023; the current frame is Decree 105/2025/ND-CP as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP — insurance files and contracts should cite the new frame.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council