The history of Burma’s jade mines in the West is a brief one. While hundreds of different reports, articles and even books exist on the famous ruby deposits of Mogok, only a handful of westerners have ever made the journey to northern Burma’s remote jade mines and wrote down their findings. Occidental accounts of the mines make their first appearance in 1837. Although in 1836, Captain Hannay obtained specimens of jadeite at Mogaung during his visit to the Assam frontier (Hannay, 1837), Dr. W.Griffiths (1847) was the first European to actually visit the mines, in 1837 (Griffiths, 1847).

Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian-based company whose operations in Burma have recently come under renewed scrutiny following the release of a report by a mining watchdog group, has come out in defense of its Burmese business partners, the ruling SPDC

A report on mining in Burma. The problems mining is bringing to the Burmese people, and the multinational companies involved in it. Includes an analysis of the SLORC 1994 Mining Law.... 'Grave Diggers, authored by world renowned mining environmental activist Roger Moody, was the first major review of mining in Burma since the country's military regime opened the door to foreign mining investment in 1994.

Large-scale land acquisition are not new in the Mekong region but have been encouraged and have gathered momentum since the end of the 90s, particularly Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. These acquisitions are realized by national and foreign companies from the region, particularly China, Vietnam, and Thailand in a movement strongly associated with economic globalization and neo-liberal policies which promote free flow of capital at the regional and global level and the adaptation of national spaces to the requirement of liberal and global markets (Peemans, 2013).

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in July 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Nyaunglebin District, during July 2012. It describes the Norwegian government's plans for a development project in Kheh Der village tract, which is to support the villagers with their livelihood needs.

Executive Summary"
"A scramble for natural gas presently unfolding in western Burma is poised to provide the ruling military junta with its single largest source of income. The sale of the gas, mainly to regional neighbours, will further entrench the junta, insulating it from international pressure. The country's already abysmal human rights situation is set to worsen.

Carries a copy of "Grave Diggers" (no search engine so go to publications and browse). Good links page.

Interesting to compare the Burmese 1994 Mining Law with those of other Asian countries (see analysis of the 1994 Mining Law in "Grave Diggers" by Roger Moody, which is on the OBL shelves).

Click down to Burma

Click on Myanmar for a map and description of MMAJ's earlier interest in the Monywa mine, now being exploited by Ivanhoe. In 1998 MMAJ organised a Workshop in Rangoon for "Investment Promotion & Environemntal Protection in the Mining Sector in ASEAN

Active in promoting mining in Burma. "The Metal Mining Agency of Japan (MMAJ) is a semigovernmental
organization under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry and the main organization that executes the
Japanese Government's policies related to the mining industry. Since
its establishment in 1963, the Agency has been conducting various
exploration operations for mineral resources both within and outside
Japan, and other worldwide activities, such as technical cooperation in