Explainer | How Chinese demand for Myanmar’s jade fuels a deadly, corrupt industry; ‘We need more consumer consciousness,’ one expert says

Up to 90 per cent of jade mined in Myanmar is believed to make its way to China, according to one campaign group, where fine pieces can fetch a high price

As well as common lethal landslides at mining sites, mining communities have huge drug-addiction problems as miners take yaba and heroin to get through the day

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A model displays a jadeite bangle during a media preview of Sotheby’s spring auctions in March 2021. The bangle was auctioned off for just over HK$30 million (US$3.8 million).

Published: 6:15pm, 13 Jan 2022

Another deadly incident in Myanmar has resurfaced long-standing conversations about an industry to which Hong Kong and China have close ties.

A landslide at a jade mine near Hpakant, in northern Kachin state, left at least three people dead and dozens missing in December 2021. Disasters like this regularly hit the open-pit mines in the state, which is a huge source of high-quality jade. In July 2020, another landslide near Hpakant triggered by heavy rainfall killed at least 160 miners. In July 2019, yet another landslide took the lives of at least 13 people.

Workers at mines and in communities in the region can pay dearly for Myanmar’s lucrative jade trade, estimated to be worth about US$31 billion in 2014 by transparency campaigners Global Witness – over half of the country’s GDP that year. While it is difficult to know because of the opaque nature of the industry, Myanmar is believed to be the source of as much as 90 per cent of the world’s jade.

The workers bearing the brunt of the industry’s negative impacts are informal miners who scavenge for jade with their hands, often out of dumping sites where large companies that use heavy machinery to extract significant quantities of jade dispose of mining waste, according to a report by economic researchers the International Growth Centre (IGC). Workers face difficult and dangerous conditions – many of the fatal landslides occur at these dumping sites – and are poorly protected by the Myanmar government.

A rescue operation takes place after a landslide at a jade mine in the Hpakant area of Kachin state, Myanmar, on December 22, 2021. Photo: Reuters

Hanna Hindstrom, a senior campaigner for Myanmar at Global Witness, says the mining industry exacerbates drug abuse in the community, especially among hand-picking miners, who are referred to as ye ma say. She said the workers usually take yaba – a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine – to get energised for the hard work of the mines, and then heroin to help them sleep.

“There’s a massive drug-addiction problem,” Hindstrom says. “A lot of jade miners … are addicted to heroin and yaba because of the horrible conditions of working in the mines.”