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In Myanmar’s largest jade mining town, the semi-precious stone prized by Chinese costs more than money

Hpakant, in Myanmar’s Kachin State, is the epicentre of a multibillion-dollar jade mining industry in which thousands risk their lives every day hoping to strike it big and earn their golden ticket out of poverty

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Unlicensed miners known as yemase search for jade stones by torchlight at night on a waste site in Hpakant, in Myanmar’s Kachin State, last year. Photo: Hkun Lat

Published: 4:05pm, 15 Aug 2020Updated: 1:03pm, 18 Aug 2020

When Kai Ring was 17, she and her sisters set out from their hometown of Myitkyina, the capital of Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin State, for the world’s largest jade mine, in Hpakant, 150km away.

“When we arrived, there was no [industry] other than jade,” says Kai Ring. “We didn’t have capital to trade it, so we dug.”

A lot has changed since her arrival in 1989. Over the decade that followed, Hpakant’s mines were taken over by Myanmar’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, and carved up into concessions that went to large companies, often those with military ties. A frenzy of excavation followed, and by 2014, the industry’s peak year, environmental watchdog Global Witness valued Kachin’s jade trade at up to US$31 billion, with 50 to 80 per cent being sold illegally to China.

Hpakant’s mines are the world’s largest supplier of jadeite, the more lucrative of two varieties of jade, while China is the world’s biggest buyer. In China, jade has been cherished for millennia, and today, the stone has become a status symbol among a growing elite class. Jade does not have a fixed international market value, but prices paid for the most coveted stones can rival those of diamonds, carat for carat.

Freelance miners in Hpakant. Photo: Hkun Lat

When Hpakant’s small-scale mining made way for company concessions and intensive extraction, a flood of social and environmental crises followed. Hundreds of thousands of miners flocked to the area from across the country. Drugs, crime and violence skyrocketed while mining explosions shook homes, and companies left behind empty pits and towering waste heaps.

Hpakant’s mines are perpetually on the brink of collapse, and landslides are frequent during the rainy season. While companies are at times mandated to cease operations during the wettest months, the closures do little to stop the boldest – or the most desperate – of miners.