Myanmar will not extend mining licenses for jade and gem stones



NAYPYITAW: -- The Burmese government has decided not to extend the mining licenses for jade and gems once they expire and will only consider new licenses when by-laws to the Myanmar Gemstones Law have been promulgated, according to the Myanmar Times Online on Wednesday.

U Thet Khaing, deputy director of the License and Registry Department, said that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Conservation wanted to change the rules governing gemstone production.

The move followed a series of disastrous landslides that have killed several hundred workers as well as reports about wholesale looting of the country’s natural mineral wealth for the benefit of a handful of people.

The government has come under heavy pressure from activist groups, environmentalists and foreign governments to clean up the vastly lucrative industry which remains under US sanctions.

A ministry announcement said the suspension will not only cover jade mines in Hpakant but gemstone quarries across the country.

According to ministry data, 400 mining licenses will expire this month in Kachin and Shan states and Mandalay and Sagaing regions, in mining areas such as Hpakant, Hkamti, Mogok and Mong Shu.

According information from U Thet Khaing, companies can continue to dig until their licenses expire and it will take until 2021 before all the permits for 19,000 blocks across the country have run their course.

A damning report by advocacy group Global Witness last year said “the elites cream off vast profits while local people suffer terrible abuses and see their natural inheritance ripped out from beneath their feet.”

The report put the value of jade industry at US$ 31 billion in 2014-15 alone but government figures for 2013-14 put the trade at barely $1 billion.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/myanmar-will-not-extend-mining-licenses-jade-gem-stones/


-- Thai PBS 2016-07-28

This will be interesting. The rich and powerful hold those licenses.