Satellite data show at least 27 new rare earth mines have opened across Laos since 2022, mostly in protected areas and many within the Mekong River Basin, raising transboundary pollution risks for Vietnam and the wider Mekong system.

New data show a recent proliferation of rare earth mines across river basins in Laos, potentially posing a transboundary water pollution threat to Vietnam and the entire Mekong River system. The new findings suggest that Chinese demand for rare earth minerals has led to the industry’s expansion into Laos, even though rare earth mineral extraction is currently illegal there.

Research from U.S.-based think tank the Stimson Center has identified 27 rare earth mines that have opened across river basins in Laos since 2022, including seven identified via satellite imagery analysis as having opened this year. Twenty-three of these mines appear to be in protected areas, but it’s unclear whether or not they’re operating with permission from officials.

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Some 45 kilometers, or 28 miles, up the Mekong River from Phnom Penh, Voi Thy sat and watched as 12 boats pumped sand from the riverbed. Another 11 boats, weighed low by their quarry of freshly mined sand, were making the glacial journey past her home in Roka Koang commune, Kandal province, to the capital.

In late June, 43-year-old Thy was slicing up bottle gourds outside her house, propped up by makeshift wooden stilts that descended down into the collapsed banks of the Mekong.

Each year, she said, the riverbank erosion gets worse. Two large collapses during Cambodia’s rainy season in May and June 2021 saw Thy move her house further from the river. But a more recent collapse in November 2021 forced her to remove a part of her house that was left hanging precariously over the water’s edge.

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The early onset of Cambodia’s wet season had seen the rain fall thick over Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, turning freshly cut paths through the forest into a near-impassible slick of churned-up mud. But the torrential weather had done little to deter local loggers, who rode out of the beleaguered protected area carrying stacks of unprocessed timber on ko-yun — elongated tractors used for transporting wood.

Over several days and nights in April 2022, reporters saw a parade of ko-yun and motorbikes, all laden with a reddish timber that glinted in the rain as they passed along a road that had been recently carved through the section of Prey Lang forest that falls inside Kratie province.

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At least 23 people are dead and 80 are missing 11 days after a landslide at a jade mine in Myanmar’s Kachin state, but junta officials and the mine’s operators have yet to confirm the casualties and are seeking to keep the incident under wraps, aid workers and residents said Friday.

The landslide occurred on Feb. 28 in Hpakant township’s Mat Lin Gyaung village at a quarry that is jointly run by private firms Myanmar National Co. and Shan Yoma Co., according to sources. Jade mining has been illegal in Hpakant since 2019, but many companies defy the ban, and operations have increased in the area since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup.

On March 3, the military announced that no one had been killed in the incident, but two days later aid workers and family members of miners told RFA’s Myanmar Service that authorities had recovered the bodies of 23 people and buried them at the nearby Mat Lin Gyaung Cemetery.

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Fears are growing of a global shortage of rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of high-tech devices as unrest in Myanmar following the February 1 coup disrupts exports to China. 

Chinese companies started complaining about delays in shipments of the minerals since mid-March, reportedly due to the deteriorating political and economic situation, which Chinese media reports say have had an impact on logistics.

Rare earth metals are used in aerospace, advanced military equipment, mobile phones and electric vehicles, among other tech products. Myanmar is a major supplier of rare earth ores, which are exported to China for extraction and processing, and then either used in local production or shipped on to global markets.

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Civil society organizations and Cambodia’s banned opposition party have called on the government to release detailed information about revenue it is earning from the petroleum industry, days after the country struck oil following a decades-long quest.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on social media that Cambodia had extracted its first drop of crude oil from fields in the Gulf of Thailand following 30 years of delays. The production, which began Monday, is the result of a joint venture between Singapore’s KrisEnergy Ltd. and the Cambodian government.

The government, which owns a five percent stake in the venture, signed an agreement with KrisEnergy in 2017 to develop more than 3,000 square kilometers of the Khmer basin in the gulf, known as Block A. Development of the field, which was originally expected to begin production last year, will proceed in phases, both sides said.

Anti-corruption groups and senior officials from the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) applauded the milestone but were quick to demand transparent and efficient revenue management.

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Environmental protection must be considered the decisive factor in future operations of the Hưng Nghiệp Formosa Hà Tĩnh Iron and Steel Co (FHS), Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc said yesterday.

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Industrial zones will be built in two major cities in Chin State – Hakha and Paletwa, and local and foreign investment will be welcome, according to a state minister. U Salai I Thakin, Chin state minister for electricity, industry and road transportation, told The Myanmar Times that surveys are being conducted in the cities to ensure that industrial zones can be established. A project plan will then be drawn up. Interested investors, state government officials and developers will be invited to invest and take part.

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Yuttana Jiamtragan, vice president for corporate administration, said SCG’s corporate venture capital arm, AddVentures, would enable the conglomerate to diversify and strengthen its innovation portfolio through investment in and collaboration with regional and global start-ups, allowing SCG to improve its competitiveness in the digital age. The move was in response to the group’s realisation that rapidly changing technologies were significantly influencing changes in consumers’ needs and behaviour, creating both opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs and corporates worldwide. The engagement with start-ups will not only allow SCG to tap into business-model innovation and cutting-edge technologies, but will also provide opportunities for start-ups in SCG’s related verticals to scale in Southeast Asia, Yuttana said.

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Steelmaker Hòa Phát Group (HPG) plans to issue over 250 million shares to raise capital for investment in the second phase of Hoà Phát Dung Quất iron and steel production complex. HPG will sell those shares at a price of VNĐ20,000 (US$0.8) per share, expecting to earn more than VNĐ5 trillion through the issue. A part of the mobilised capital will be aimed at raising the company’s working capital. The subscription period is projected to fall from June 27 to July 17 or will be notified by the Việt Nam Securities Depository after Hòa Phát completes the list of shareholders purchasing the shares.

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