Extractive industries
Hunting for particles of gold in the jungles of Southeast Asia
Walking across the world, you encounter human beings engaged in various repetitive behaviors. Raising babies. Fixing machines. Boiling tea. Planting crops. Posting videos on TikTok. Looking for gold. Our species’ pervasive quest for gold is ancient and tireless. Along my 11,000-mile trail out of Africa, I have ...
PAUL SALOPEK
Chifeng Jilong to Restart Gold Production at Sepon Mine in Laos
China’s Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining Co has said it will begin processing gold ore from its mine in Sepon, Laos, after a six-year hiatus. According to a report by Reuters, the restart of gold production at the mine is due to gold prices hitting a seven-year ...
Latsamy Phonevilay
Roving bandits and looted coastlines: How the global appetite for sand is fuelling a crisis
Next to water, sand is our most consumed natural resource. The global demand for sand and gravel stands between 40 billion and 50 billion tonnes annually, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and its scarcity is an emerging global crisis. The world may run out of sand if we ...
Melissa Marschke, Jean-François Rousseau, Laura Schoenberger and Michael Hoffmann
Cambodia considers licensing mining at four coal sites
The Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy is set to review applications soon for rights to four coal mining concession areas it opened late in March in the northern region of the country, the Phnom Penh Post reported. The ministry said in a press release that interested national ...
Ministry to give mining rights for four coal sites
The Ministry of Mines and Energy is set to review applications soon for rights to four coal mining concession areas – totalling 794sq km – it opened late in March in the Kingdom’s north. “Interested national and international companies can apply for a mining licence at ...
Thou Vireak
The great salt drought desiccating Vietnam's Mekong Delta
“Well I can tell you, all my fish are dead now.” Nguyen Thi Bach Vien sounds more resigned than anything else. She is calling from her home in Ben Tre province, a few hours drive south of Ho Chi Minh City in the belly of Vietnam’s ...
Zoe Osborne
Three Arrested in Laos for Illegally Mining Gold on Land Leased by Chinese Company
Authorities in Laos’ Luang Prabang province arrested three rural villagers for trespassing after they tried to mine gold on land granted in a concession to a Chinese company, RFA has learned. The villagers, from Phapon village in Luang Prabang’s Pak Ou district, were initially detained by ...
RFA’s Lao Service
Houses On The River Will Fall': Cambodia's Sand Mining Threatens Vital Mekong
Some 60 million people rely on Southeast Asia’s Mekong River for their sustenance. But the Mekong is under threat. While China is building dams that sharply reduce the water flow and sediment downstream, other countries along the river share some of the blame. Cambodia, for instance, is experiencing a ...
Michael Sullivan
Myanmar authorities stop 17 illegal gold mines along Ayeyarwady River
U Kyaw Myint Than, director of the Directorate of Water Resources and Improvement of River System said the illegal gold mines were discovered in Thabeikkyin township during an inspection on the area on Monday. The general administration department, police force and the officials from the Ministry ...
Kyaw Ko Ko
Unsustainable sand mining is threatening lives along the Mekong River in Cambodia
It’s a resource used in global construction and mined from rivers and coasts across the world. Now new research, as part of a project led by University of Southampton, has shown sand mining is causing river beds to lower, leading to riverbank instability and increasing ...
