Extractive industries
Trouble brewing after giant jade rock seized and deemed state property
Tensions are rising between gem scavengers and the Taut Pa Kye Company in Hpakant township, Kachin State, after a huge jadeite found by scavengers was confiscated as it was said to be state-owned property. After the jadeite was discovered in the Taut Pa Kye Company work ...
Gold orders drop due to purchase tax
Since the government started to collect tax on gold purchases on April 1, orders at workshops and goldsmiths have dropped. Goldsmith Ko Naung Naung from Chan Mya Tharsi township, Mandalay Region, said the downward trend was worrying because in the past, jewellers would make orders ...
An uphill battle with illegal sand exploiters on Sai Gon River
The riverbed is becoming wider, while houses on the two banks are about to fall into the river due to serious erosion. Illegal sand exploitation has spoiled the environment, caused landslides, changing the current, and threatening waterway transport. “In the past, Sai Gon River was full ...
Trump targets cheap Chinese steel in probe, rallying US steel stocks
President Donald Trump on April 20 launched a trade probe against China and other exporters of cheap steel into the U.S. market, raising the possibility of new tariffs and sending shares of some U.S. steel makers up over 8 percent. Citing concerns about national security, Trump ...
3 titanium companies ordered to stop operations
The central province’s environmental department has ordered three titanium exploitation companies to suspend operations, which have continued for the last three years despite expired licences. The three companies – Mỹ Tài Co Ltd, Tấn Phát Co Ltd and Ban Mai Production & Commerce Co Ltd ...
KrisEnergy set to sign oil agreement
Singapore-listed oil and gas firm KrisEnergy says it is ready to sign an agreement with the Cambodian government after completing details of a revised sharing contract for the Block A oilfield. Kelvin Tang, president of KrisEnergy Cambodia, wrote to Khmer Times on April 6 saying that ...
Quảng Nam probes 50,000cu.m of missing sand
Project investors, contractors and sub-contractors of a dredging project in the Cửa Đại Estuary are suspected of “serious violations” with a large volume of sand gone “missing.” Quảng Nam’s Public Security and Transport departments are collaborating with Hội An City and relevant agencies in investigating ...
Dredging fee fraud alleged
A French-Canadian businessman was charged on March 29 with defrauding a sand trader of more than $300,000 by promising to arrange official permission for a dredging operation. Interior Ministry police officer Chea Pesith said Seang Metta, 52, of Boeung Keng Kang II commune in Phnom Penh, claimed ...
Oil firm ready to ink production-sharing agreement
Executives at Singapore-listed energy firm KrisEnergy Ltd say they have settled terms with the Cambodian government and are ready to sign a long-awaited production-sharing agreement that would pave the way for the first-ever extraction of petroleum from Cambodian territorial waters. Kelvin Tang, KrisEnergy’s chief operating ...
Myanmar-China oil pipeline a reality
Nearly a decade in the making, a project to pump oil 770 km across Myanmar to southwest China is set for imminent start-up, with a supertanker nearing the port of Kyauk Phyu, marking the opening of a new oil trading route. Dogged by sensitive relations ...