This study is an analysis of sand mining in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) with the use of the optical satellite data set PlanetScope. This is done with a detection and classification model of sand mining vessels in the VMD. The classification model is based on machine-learning and it is trained with three classes: sand mining vessels, other vessels, and background. This study shows that it is possible to distinguish vessel types with a 3 metre spatial resolution and it shows great potential for a vessel classification model based on machine learning.