General articles are free for 24 hours after publish.
Mission Impossible: Controlling destructive rare earth mining in Myanmar a tough call
Mizzima Commentary Rare earth mining in Myanmar has been the subject of a raft of serious investigative reports over the last five years since the Myanmar military illegally grabbed power in 2021. The environmental damage it causes, the lack of controls and the poor working conditions for the labour force are reasons why local people and NGOs raise banners and protest, calling for an end to the destruction. But Mission Impossible might be the best way to label the pushback against the mining due to a number of factors that block intervention – and the insatiable appetite China, newcomer India and the US have for these rare earths. Let’s face it, protests led by local people in the badlands of northeastern Myanmar and by Buddhist monks across the border in Thailand may hit the headlines and add “rare earth mining” to the subjects up for political and public discussion. But getting to grips with tackling the environmental and human fallout is a tough call. WHY THE DEMAND? Digging for rare earths is the world’s new “gold rush”, a mining drive that has developed over the last decade in various regions around the world, but largely in China and Myanmar. The primary heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) mined in Myanmar specifically are Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb). Together, they are often referred to in the mining industry as “DyTb”. While Myanmar also extracts small trace amounts of other heavy elements like Yttrium, Holmium, and Lutetium, Dysprosium and Terbium dominate the supply chain. Dysprosium and Terbium are rarely used to build whole objects on their own. Instead, they act as critical additives (or “dopants”) that are blended in small amounts (typically 1 per cent to 10 per cent) into standard Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets. Adding Dysprosium and Terbium dramatically increases a magnet’s coercivity (resistance to demagnetization) and thermal stability. Without them, regular magnets lose their magnetic force and fail completely when exposed to high operational heat. Unlike lighter rare earths, there are no known viable substitutes at scale for Dysprosium and Terbium in high-performance engineering. This makes the informal, often dangerous mines in northern Myanmar the literal starting point for the global “green energy” transition and advanced defense manufacturing, including a raft of new technology weapons including drones, as well as electric vehicles and consumer electronics, including elements used in smartphones. Rare earths are baked in to new technology. LATEST MINING REPORT According to a recently released Rest of World report, entitled: “The hidden cost of Myanmar’s rare earth mines”, many countries consider rare earths to be “critical minerals” – vital to economic and security interests but vulnerable to supply chain disruption. As competition for control over supply chains intensifies, rare earth extraction has left a wake of destruction in source countries. Myanmar, the world’s largest supplier of Dysprosium and Terbium, is now enduring a disproportionate burden. Myanmar is now in the spotlight. According to the environmental nonprofit Global Witness, Myanmar surpassed China as the world’s largest source of heavy rare earths in 2021. As the US, China and India seek tighter control over rare earth supply chains as a means to advance their national interests, their demand is indirectly funding conflict actors in Myanmar during a time of war, incentivizing rapid extraction with minimal or no safeguards, and causing a wave of destruction. ENVIRONMENTAL & HUMAN COST Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry operates in secret, with no public records of active permits or companies involved. Worksites are heavily guarded, and only a handful of journalists have reported on the ground over the past decade, according to the Rest of World report. Still, news has trickled out of poisoned rivers, forests devoid of wildlife, and farmland so toxic that growers cannot sell their crops. Intermittent protests by local people and Thais over the border dismayed by the damage occasionally make the news. In May, a local human rights group reported that a Chinese rare earth mining company in Myanmar’s eastern Shan State was using prisoners and human trafficking victims for “slave labour.” It found that both the Myanmar military and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic army which maintains a ceasefire with the Myanmar military, were complicit, according to the report. FEW CONTROLS The businesses carrying out this extraction face few consequences in Myanmar — in part because the industry operates in a legal gray area. Chinese companies extract rare earths in autonomous, militarized regions controlled by local ethnic armies, which typically protect mining operations while taking a cut of the profits. The mined material is then trucked across the border into China, where it is mixed and essentially “laundered” with rare earth from other sources and processed for use in global products – which can mean an electric vehicle purchaser in Europe would be unable to know where the materials used in its manufacture are sourced, even if they were interested. A recent report by the Stimson Center entitled: “Rare Earth Mining in Myanmar Expands to TNLA-Held Territory”, zeroes in on a particular area and militant group, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which coincidentally recently held talks with the ruling Myanmar military junta in Naypyidaw. For the first time, rare earth mines are emerging in territory controlled by the TNLA, close to the border with China, in Myanmar’s Shan State. This report revelation builds on work undertaken by the Stimson Center over the past year to document and geolocate thousands of mines across mainland Southeast Asia, including over 600 rare earth mines in Myanmar. The report zeroes in on the struggles the TNLA has faced, including the aftermath of its military involvement in Operation 1027. Rare earth mining has begun to appear in TNLA-held territory, the Stimson Center reports. Satellite imagery analysis over the past seven months in northern Shan State’s Mantong Township shows the development of at least 12 rare earth mines and new corresponding roads connecting these minesto established roads leading towards the Chinese border. Collection pools, where heavy rare earth-laden slurry accumulate through the extraction process and clear markers of rare earth mining in Myanmar, appear in TNLA territory as early as December 2025. While it is difficult to determine the current stage of these developments, the leaching process in general takes between 150 and 400 days, which suggests exports by the TNLA to China may have already begun, the report says. FINANCIAL LIFELINE The TNLA mining case is an example of the temptation rare earth mining offers to militant groups or Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAO) in the badlands of Myanmar, a
Mizzima Commentary Rare earth mining in Myanmar has been the subject of a raft of serious investigative reports over the last five years since the Myanmar military illegally grabbed power in 2021. The environmental damage it causes, the lack of controls and the poor working conditions for the labour force are reasons why local people and NGOs raise banners and protest, calling for an end to the destruction. But Mission Impossible might be the best way to label the pushback against the mining due to a number of factors that block intervention – and the insatiable appetite China, newcomer India and the US have for these rare earths. Let’s face it, protests led by local people in the badlands of northeastern Myanmar and by Buddhist monks across the border in Thailand may hit the headlines and add “rare earth mining” to the subjects up for political and public discussion. But getting to grips with tackling the environmental and human fallout is a tough call. WHY THE DEMAND? Digging for rare earths is the world’s new “gold rush”, a mining drive that has developed over the last decade in various regions around the world, but largely in China and Myanmar. The primary heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) mined in Myanmar specifically are Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb). Together, they are often referred to in the mining industry as “DyTb”. While Myanmar also extracts small trace amounts of other heavy elements like Yttrium, Holmium, and Lutetium, Dysprosium and Terbium dominate the supply chain. Dysprosium and Terbium are rarely used to build whole objects on their own. Instead, they act as critical additives (or “dopants”) that are blended in small amounts (typically 1 per cent to 10 per cent) into standard Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets. Adding Dysprosium and Terbium dramatically increases a magnet’s coercivity (resistance to demagnetization) and thermal stability. Without them, regular magnets lose their magnetic force and fail completely when exposed to high operational heat. Unlike lighter rare earths, there are no known viable substitutes at scale for Dysprosium and Terbium in high-performance engineering. This makes the informal, often dangerous mines in northern Myanmar the literal starting point for the global “green energy” transition and advanced defense manufacturing, including a raft of new technology weapons including drones, as well as electric vehicles and consumer electronics, including elements used in smartphones. Rare earths are baked in to new technology. LATEST MINING REPORT According to a recently released Rest of World report, entitled: “The hidden cost of Myanmar’s rare earth mines”, many countries consider rare earths to be “critical minerals” – vital to economic and security interests but vulnerable to supply chain disruption. As competition for control over supply chains intensifies, rare earth extraction has left a wake of destruction in source countries. Myanmar, the world’s largest supplier of Dysprosium and Terbium, is now enduring a disproportionate burden. Myanmar is now in the spotlight. According to the environmental nonprofit Global Witness, Myanmar surpassed China as the world’s largest source of heavy rare earths in 2021. As the US, China and India seek tighter control over rare earth supply chains as a means to advance their national interests, their demand is indirectly funding conflict actors in Myanmar during a time of war, incentivizing rapid extraction with minimal or no safeguards, and causing a wave of destruction. ENVIRONMENTAL & HUMAN COST Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry operates in secret, with no public records of active permits or companies involved. Worksites are heavily guarded, and only a handful of journalists have reported on the ground over the past decade, according to the Rest of World report. Still, news has trickled out of poisoned rivers, forests devoid of wildlife, and farmland so toxic that growers cannot sell their crops. Intermittent protests by local people and Thais over the border dismayed by the damage occasionally make the news. In May, a local human rights group reported that a Chinese rare earth mining company in Myanmar’s eastern Shan State was using prisoners and human trafficking victims for “slave labour.” It found that both the Myanmar military and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic army which maintains a ceasefire with the Myanmar military, were complicit, according to the report. FEW CONTROLS The businesses carrying out this extraction face few consequences in Myanmar — in part because the industry operates in a legal gray area. Chinese companies extract rare earths in autonomous, militarized regions controlled by local ethnic armies, which typically protect mining operations while taking a cut of the profits. The mined material is then trucked across the border into China, where it is mixed and essentially “laundered” with rare earth from other sources and processed for use in global products – which can mean an electric vehicle purchaser in Europe would be unable to know where the materials used in its manufacture are sourced, even if they were interested. A recent report by the Stimson Center entitled: “Rare Earth Mining in Myanmar Expands to TNLA-Held Territory”, zeroes in on a particular area and militant group, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which coincidentally recently held talks with the ruling Myanmar military junta in Naypyidaw. For the first time, rare earth mines are emerging in territory controlled by the TNLA, close to the border with China, in Myanmar’s Shan State. This report revelation builds on work undertaken by the Stimson Center over the past year to document and geolocate thousands of mines across mainland Southeast Asia, including over 600 rare earth mines in Myanmar. The report zeroes in on the struggles the TNLA has faced, including the aftermath of its military involvement in Operation 1027. Rare earth mining has begun to appear in TNLA-held territory, the Stimson Center reports. Satellite imagery analysis over the past seven months in northern Shan State’s Mantong Township shows the development of at least 12 rare earth mines and new corresponding roads connecting these minesto established roads leading towards the Chinese border. Collection pools, where heavy rare earth-laden slurry accumulate through the extraction process and clear markers of rare earth mining in Myanmar, appear in TNLA territory as early as December 2025. While it is difficult to determine the current stage of these developments, the leaching process in general takes between 150 and 400 days, which suggests exports by the TNLA to China may have already begun, the report says. FINANCIAL LIFELINE The TNLA mining case is an example of the temptation rare earth mining offers to militant groups or Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAO) in the badlands of Myanmar, a
Original source
Mizzima English