Case study: The Gendered Impacts of Gold Mining in Kachin State

In 1994, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) signed a cease-fire agreement with the State Law and Order Council (SLORC), the name of the military junta ruling Burma at the time. The agreement ended decades of violent conflict and made it possible for companies to enter into joint-venture agreements with the Ministry of Mines, located in Rangoon. While Kachin State is perhaps best known for its extremely large and valuable jade deposits, the mountainous region located in northern Burma also contains economically viable amounts of gold, platinum, and coal.

In October 2002, the Ministry of Mines began taking bids on forty-two blocks of land across Burma it had previously identified as likely to contain gold. Twenty-three of these blocks are located in Kachin State.¹⁷

A number of companies have been granted mining concessions since 2002. The six most important companies include the Northern Star Trading Company, Seasun Star, the Buga Company, the Wa Company, the Kyatkhaing Yae Company, and the Thwe Company. Of these, Northern Star Trading Company operates the largest number of sites across Kachin State.

The Northern Star Trading Company is particularly successful due to its strong ties with the Burmese military and other Chinese mining companies. In fact, its ties are so strong that the military regime in Burma has granted the Northern Star Trading Company the power to determine which companies can and cannot obtain mining concessions in Kachin State, a responsibility that normally falls to the Ministry of Mines.¹⁸ This extremely unusual arrangement also extends to mining companies operated by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K). Unlike cease-fire groups elsewhere in Burma, especially those in Shan and Karen States, the KIO and the NDA-K have to directly negotiate concessions with a private company—the Northern Star Trading Company—rather than with the regime itself. The concessions are limited to one-year contracts.¹⁹

Gold concessions are primarily located along sections of the Malikha, Chindwin, Nmaihka, and Irrawaddy Rivers in Kachin State. Two major sites are located just outside the cities of Shingbwiyang and Shaduzup. Three other large sites are located in more remote areas west of the Ledo (Stilwell) Road, which links Shaduzup to Tanai. All of these sites fall outside of the current boundaries of the Hukawng Wildlife Sanctuary, which was established in 2001 with the assistance of Wildlife Conservation Society.

The Sanctuary was created with the intention of protecting important habitat for a number of threatened and endangered species: tiger, macaque, golden cat, elephant, Asiatic black bear, and clouded leopard. However, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has taken no real steps to slow or to stop the clear-cutting of forests in the region.²⁰ Moreover, all of the mining sites, and the toxic waste they generate, will fall inside the new boundaries of the protected-zone if the Sanctuary is expanded as is currently planned.²¹ It remains unclear how the SPDC and the Wildlife Conservation Society intend to protect these species and the habitat they require if the expansion occurs.

These findings mirror those documents in the report published by ERI in 2003, Capitalizing on Conflict, which focused on logging and mining activities in several areas of central and eastern Burma. In both cases, the rapid shift to large-scale forms of intensive mining has displaced local communities that historically used artisanal forms of mining to supplement their incomes. The impacts on women in Kachin State as well as the environment have been particularly striking; they also echo the experiences of almost all of the participants attending the conference.²²

Domestic violence, rape, and prostitution have all increased tremendously according to the people Christine has been able to interview from Kachin State. To a significant extent, these social problems are connected to the growth of a cash-based economy. The rising cost of basic goods (e.g. food and medicine) have created immense pressure on women and young girls from desperately poor families to enter into the commercial sex industry, which serves the overwhelmingly male and transient labor force.

Heroin use, in addition to opium and alcohol, in the region is also widespread. Currently, HIV infection rates for intravenous drug users in Burma are among the highest in the world.²³ Furthermore, infection rates for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS have exploded, significantly harming women. The introduction of brothels and sex work has altered Kachin society for the worse. Because most of the employees at the mine sites are predominantly men, the demand for sex workers has increased.

Artisanal mining also exacts a heavy burden on the environment and the people involved in various stages of processing gold, copper, and other minerals. The damage it causes, intentional or otherwise, is a threat to basic rights: to health and to life.²⁴ Three key problems, according Christine’s paper, serve to undermine these rights.

First, many people who engage in artisanal mining are not fully aware of its dangers. Currently, access to reliable information is extremely limited in Burma. As a result, it is not unusual to encounter opinions like these:

“Some miners swallowed mercury because they heard that it helps one recover from diarrhea. But I haven’t seen this myself. I just overheard it from other miners.”²⁵

“As soon as someone died, you must pour mercury into the corpse’s mouth so that it does not decay. I also heard that if you stole gold, your boss would force you to drink mercury because it extracts gold in the womb, and then the gold and mercury would come out with your waste.”²⁶

Efforts to limit pollution are also inadequate. In part, a general lack of environmental awareness contributes to this problem. But in many cases, basic technology and safety precautions are insufficient.

“I was not sure I could keep all the mercury in the bottle again because a little amount of mercury leaks out into the water every single time. Sometimes all the mercury accidently spills into the river.”²⁷

“I think the water was very clean before the mining came. But now all the miners are using the river water. It was used over and over, taken from the river and let go there again... The water has turned bad...”²⁸

The final reason is, of course, a lack of accountability, which includes the unwillingness of the SPDC to enforce existing laws on environmental protection much less to create new ones.²⁹