A tragic landslide has struck again the mining sector of Myanmar, yesterday, 2 July 2020, causing at least 200 victims, local sources say. It would be incorrect to put all the blame for what happened to misfortune, fate, destiny or another inauspicious natural disaster, since each of the small and large landslides that periodically hit the jade miners has a series of causes originating from afar.
As early as in 2017 IGR reported the proposed modifications to the mining laws governing the exploitation of gemstones in Myanmar, mainly ruby and jade. The draft of the new legislation seems to continue the benefits assigned to large extractive companies controlled by the military, protecting the economic interests of groups close to the establishment. Small artisanal extractive companies and freelance miners are left outside the main operations of the market in a subordinate condition forcing them to mine already unstable soils in search of residual jade leftovers in the fields under exploitation of large mining groups.
What happened in the jade mines of the Wai Khar district in the north of the country? The heavy nighttime rains might have caused the landslide that overwhelmed the miners left to work despite the heavy risk. In the area, a mountain twenty years ago and now a gigantic open-air quarry, Myanmar Tagaung Co. has been operating for about ten years in the increasingly unstable soil turning to a trap for those working there “illegaly” in the rainy seasons.
While it is well known that landslides of this type cause dozens of deaths every year in Myanmar, it appears evident that this is the largest mining tragedy in the country since 2015, when a similar accident in a nearby village caused about 135 casualties and over one hundred missing. The safety of miners not belonging to large extractive companies remains a critical issue and numerous abuses related to the working conditions of miners engaged in the extraction of jade are reported. The world public opinion as well as UN agencies have focused recently especially on the persecutory policies perpetrated by the Indochinese country against the Rohingya minority.
