In the new book, Myanmar: The State, Community and Environment (2007, Canberra: Asia Pacific Press/The Australian National University) edited by Trevor Wilson and Monique Skidmore, ERI Burma Project Coordinator Matthew Smith contributed a chapter on “Environmental Governance of Mining in Burma.” The chapter includes a detailed case study of the Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines’ joint venture with the military regime in Burma, and concludes that environmental governance of mining in Burma is a top-down system, devoid of environmental protection and dominated by the elemental purpose of securing revenue.

The book also includes a chapter by former ERI staff and research consultant Dr. Ken MacLean, Assistant Professor of Development and Social Change at Clark University, which draws on field data collected by ERI in Eastern Burma. Entitled “Spaces of Extraction: Actually Existing Governance along the Riverine Networks of Nyaunglebin District,” the chapter explores the question of how conflict zones become governable spaces in the context of military rule, natural resource extraction, and “regulated forms of violence.” It analyzes the militarization of everyday life that has emerged with the regime’s rising business interests in the natural resources of eastern Burma. These business interests include gold mining and the construction of the Kyaut Nagar hydropower dam.

Recent events in Burma, including the brutal crackdown against peaceful protestors, have led the international community to raise long asked questions about the ethics of business partnerships with the military regime. In this crisis, EarthRights International is calling on all companies with interests and influence in Burma to take concrete actions to stop the military regime’s ongoing egregious human rights abuses. (See related story for more information.)

Prior to the nationwide protests and the regime’s brutal crackdown, the Canadian company Ivanhoe Mines transferred its assets in Burma to an independent trust, which is tasked with selling the company’s stake in Burma. The assets were transferred due to pressure from Rio Tinto, the world’s largest mining company and Ivanhoe’s partner in developing a large copper deposit in Mongolia’s Gobi desert. In a recent interview, Rio Tinto spokesman Nick Cobban said, "Clearly, Myanmar was not a country that we as a company wanted to have an investment with, so we did make it a condition as party of the agreement with Ivanhoe that they would dispose of it."

The company’s stake has not yet been sold, and despite the asset transfer, Ivanhoe Mines continues to collect millions of dollars from the mine in Burma, and presumably will continue to do so until the assets are sold. In 2006, a Korean consortium led by Daewoo International expressed interest in the copper mine, but no sale has materialized. 

On October 3rd, Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. released a public statement deploring the brutal crackdown and violence against peaceful protestors in Burma. EarthRights International commends the statement by Ivanhoe Mines. However, ERI regrets the negative net effect of the company’s thirteen year, 50-50 joint-venture partnership with the ruling military junta in Burma through the Monywa Copper Project. The Monywa Copper Project is Burma’s largest mine in terms of recovery rates, production, and revenue. 

Read "Environmental Governance of Mining in Burma" 

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