This content was originally , published , by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
After a disaster at a rare earths me on Friday, rescuers recovered the body of 15 me workers in northern Myanmar. The incidents are the most recent in an unregulated business  , contributing to the rising demand for metals in China and beyond.
A equivalent of one of the missing workers reported to Radio Free Asia that thirty workers, the majority of them fresh men, were trapped in the Pang War mine in Kachin state at nightfall on Wednesday when it collapsed.
” To date, fifteen systems have been discovered. ” Two ladies were included,” said the citizen, who declined to be identified out of fear of reprisals for speaking to the media. ” The rest have n’t been found”.
This month’s me suffered its second major hazard. A June 4 , landslide , killed more than 20 citizens, including three Chinese citizens.
Environmental activists claim that there is a rise in the improper mine of rare earth metals in northern Myanmar because of need for terbium and dysprosium, which are components used in electric vehicle production in neighboring China.
Although Pang War occurs in a region that is under the command of the junta forces, the mine and pollution it causes are largely unregulated.
RFA called Kachin country’s dictatorship director, Moe Min Thein, for details on the flood but he did not respond.  ,
According to environmentalists, China-based companies finance the miners and transport the ore across the border for running and sale to global supply chains, where mining has become more and more restricted due to safety and environmental concerns.
People claim that Chinese immigrants are increasingly recognized at the mines.
RFA contacted China’s military in Myanmar for comment, but it had not responded by the time of release.
The number of rare earth mine in , source- rich , Kachin state grew by 40 % between 2021 and 2023, the economic team Global Witness said in a subsequent report. There are more than 300 mine in the country’s Specific Region 1 of the town, it said.
There has also been a boom of , fighting , in the position between coup forces and the independence- seeking Kachin Independence Army, at periods over access to resources and business routes.
The boost in fighting this year has caused civilians to flee and/or be killed, and it comes as the junta’s forces, which seized power in a 2021 revolution, have experienced setbacks in some parts of the nation, including Kachin state, as a result.
Climate activists say all factors in Myanmar’s northernmost condition seek revenue from its assets, including the rare earths.
