Extractive industries policy and administration

A dozen more Philippine mines, mostly nickel projects, are in danger of being suspended in an ongoing environmental crackdown on the sector, an environment undersecretary said on September 21. The Southeast Asian nation, the world’s top supplier of nickel ore, has already halted the operations of ...

In a milestone for Cambodia’s nascent mining industry, the government has issued the first commercial mining licence to Mesco Gold, giving the Indian mining firm a green light to extract and process ore at its gold project in Ratanakkiri province, industry sources said on September ...

More than 1000 jade mining companies will be forced by law to clean up their sites in Hpakant and Lone Khin mining areas in Kachin State once their permits have expired, the government says. U Win Htein, director general of the Department of Mines, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, told The ...

A new investigation commission will be formed to look into the Myanmar Gems Traders Association’s financial scandal, involving allegations of more than US$100 million that went missing from their bank account, according to the organization’s chairman. A previous review was conducted and finalized this week by ...

According to the new assignments at the government’s monthly meeting for May in Vientiane from May 24-25, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry takes sole management for all kinds of forest. The Ministry of Energy and Mines takes sole management mandate for all mining. Land management ...

Despite the government’s vow to be more transparent with regulations and the issuing of sand-dredging licences, Cambodia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has granted nearly 70 new such licences without holding public auctions or requiring companies to disclose environmental impact assessments results to the public, according ...

A three-month investigation into dodgy dealings in the murky jade industry has netted dozens of government officials, with two director generals dismissed from their posts earlier this week. The President’s Office on 3 March confirmed that the director generals from two Union government ministries, as well as ...

With Myanmar’s deadly jade industry increasingly under international scrutiny after hundreds of scavengers were buried in landslides, the Amyotha Hluttaw is taking the infamously unregulated extractive industries sector to task. The illegal plundering of natural resources will be put to an end, according to National League for ...

Deadly landslips have brought more death to Kachin State as two separate collapses in one day at the Hpakant jade mines claimed an unknown number of victims. Local residents fear as many as 30 people may have lost their lives. The first of the two landslides ...

A jade probe led by the government following several deadly accidents at mines in Kachin State has expanded its scope and is now being overseen by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The special investigative team, which was previously under the Ministry of the Environment, is looking into ...