Ministry to probe suspected illegal mining in Mon forest
Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Ministry will investigate reports of illegal gold mining in a forest near Watwun mountain in Kyaikto township, Mon State, a senior official said.
U Ye Myint Swe, the ministry’s deputy minister, said an area in the forest has been leased for a tree farm, not gold mining. He warned that anyone found gold mining in the area would face prosecution under the Forest Law and Mining Law.
“In June 2019, we had a report that the tenant farmer had stopped growing trees and was making arrangements for gold mining,” he said. “Upon investigating, we found out that an ethnic organisation plans to apply for permission for small-scale gold mining.”
The state government ordered the organisation stop making preparations for mining until it gets a permit.
U Hla Myint Than, an Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) legislator for Mon, said the waste water produced by gold mining damages the environment in neighbouring villages, farmland and rubber plantations.
The gold mining stopped after the rubber plantation owners complained to the Forest Department about it in 2014 and 2015.
The Oxford Business Group noted that Myanmar’s vast deposits of mineral resources, such as tin, tungsten, copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead and precious stones, remain relatively unexplored compared to other mineral-rich countries. – Translated
Yee Ywal Myint
