Copper mine recommendations still not implemented

15 January 2020
Copper mine recommendations still not implemented
Children collecting sulphur sand to make copper at the copper mine waste dump in Sarlingyi township in Monywa, Sagaing Division, Myanmar. Photo: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

Villagers who live in a copper mining area of northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region have said that previous recommendations by a parliamentary commission about a Chinese-backed mine project have yet to be implemented and that the company has failed to pay them fair compensation for land they forfeited for the project, RFA reported.

In a report issued in March 2013, a commission issued nearly 100 recommendations, among the most important of which were an acknowledgement that the Letpadaung mine in Salingyi township had affected the environment and that farmers had been forcibly evicted from their land to make way for the project.

The body advised the Chinese company to compensate farmers but concluded that it could continue its mining activities. Farmers who had to forfeit land for the project have long complained and protested that the company and the regional government have failed to implement the commission’s measures.