Linn Maung
A batch of approx. 80-100 Chinese technicians & helpers have reached Salingyi township recently to restore Myanmar’s copper mining operations that were halted post military coup d’état in 2021.
The two companies of China’s state-owned Wanbao Mining Co. Ltd., Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd. and Myanmar Yang Tse Copper Ltd., manage mining projects in Letpadaung and other resource-rich areas of Salingyi township in the Sagaing region. The subsidiaries collaborate with Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) that is owned by the Myanmar military to conduct joint venture operations. The Letpadaung mine’s operating capacity was reduced by more than 80 percent when workers left their jobs to join the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement in 2021, following the military’s takeover of power. However, locals claimed that Wanbao kept on manufacturing copper, which was delivered to Yangon and then transferred by sea to China.
On April 17, Wanbao declared that it would carry out a series of examinations and maintenance for any equipment flaws in four processing facilities that have been idle for a long time.
According to a local resident “the company continued copper extraction by running the factories sequentially rather than simultaneously and efforts are being made to bring all of the processing plants back to full operation.”
In order to prevent any disturbances or attacks on the activities, hundreds of junta troops have taken on security measures and are stationing heavy weapons in residential districts, he claimed.
The Yinmarbin-Salingyi Multi-Villages Strike Steering Committee called for Myanmar Wanbao and Yang Tse to cease operations and end their cooperation with the ruling junta during a protest on May 7, 2024, in response to the arrival of the Chinese labourers. Residents claimed that security guards and safe cars were given to the recent round of Chinese emigrants.
A second person reported that the neighbouring villages had been cleared of resistance forces and that junta forces were providing protection to thwart possible attacks on vehicles carrying copper. Columns from the Northwestern Command are sent to escort the vehicles once the goods are loaded onto them, he said.
According to the second resident, “they unleash small arms and heavy weapons fire on the villages along the roadside, burning them and establishing security.
” A Chinese national and a driver were hurt in an anti-junta force ambush on a convoy of cars carrying almost 540 tonnes of copper on the Monywa-Mandalay Road close to Gway Pin Taw hamlet on May 1 by Myinmu Peoples Defence Force as junta relies on the copper mines for revenue. The attack also caused two vehicles to tumble. Chinese Embassy in Yangon did not respond to the incident due to obvious reasons nor representative for Myanmar Wanbao could not be reached. 16 People’s Defence Groups from Salingyi and the neighbouring townships of Yinmarbin vowed to demolish the mine in April 2022 if Wanbao restored it to operation. Two months later, after resistance groups threatened to destroy the project if operations resumed, the junta declared it would defend the stalled Chinese copper mine, which is considered a vital source of income for the military rule.
