The dirty secrets behind Myanmar's rare-earths boom

Rare-earth mining has exploded in Myanmar's Kachin region, making it the world's largest source of supply. Photo: DW

Lahtaw Kai draws an imaginary mountain into the air with her hands and uses her fingers to dot it with holes.

"At the top of the mountains, they drill holes and then pour chemicals like ammonium nitrate into the ground to extract the rare earth minerals at the bottom," the Myanmar environment activist told DW. 

Lahtaw Kai — whose name we've changed for security reasons — was illustrating the so-called in-situ leaching technique, which has been applied for decades in mining rare earths in Myanmar's northern Kachin state.

The process begins at the top of the mountains, where chemicals are injected into the earth through a network of pipes. As the solution tracks downslope, it gathers rare earth elements, which are then collected in large ponds.

At hundreds of mining sites in the region, in-situ leaching is proving to be a huge risk to both the environment and local villagers.

"The rare earth sludge dries out in wood-fired kilns, and areas close to the mining sites constantly smell bad," said Lahtaw Kai, adding that she and her research team cannot stay there for more than 30 minutes because it's hard to breathe.

"But people are working there without gloves and masks. Companies don't provide protection. So, the workers get sick and then [the company] fires them and brings in new workers," she added.

Seng Li, a human rights activist currently based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, has researched mining sites in Myanmar's north and says the mountains used to be green before mining started.

"Now those mountains are very ugly, the river turned red. Some of the chemicals they use in the mining pools, they just dump into the waters," he told DW.

DW met both Lahtaw Kai and Seng Li on the sidelines of a recent tour of Europe, where they were campaigning for support of their cause. They want to make Europeans aware of what happens at the beginning of global supply chains that finally lead to products such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, medical equipment, and even weapons.

Rare earth elements crucial industrial inputs?

Julie Klinger, assistant professor at the University of Delaware in the United States, explains that the term rare-earth elements refers to 17 chemically similar elements in the so-called periodic table of elements.

"The thing that distinguishes these elements is their fantastic, magnetic and conductive, and in some cases thermal properties," she told DW.

Also called the "spice of industry," rare earths can be used in relatively small quantities to enhance industrial processes.

Dysprosium, for example, is used as a catalyst in petrochemical refining, said Klinger, and can be found in Myanmar's north. The element with a metallic silver luster is essential for battery production, increasing their heat efficiency and longevity, making it a key component for the green energy transition.

Dysprosium is also used in producing permanent magnets capable of maintaining a constant magnetic field needed for modern power generators in electric vehicles or wind turbines. 

Nonprofit organisation Global Witness reported in 2024 that Chinese producers of permanent magnets are sourcing rare earths from Myanmar. 

Among the customers of China-made rare-earths products specifically named by the report are global auto giants Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Ford and Hyundai, as well as wind power firms like Siemens Gamesa and Vestas.

Another report compiled by Adams Intelligence— a consultancy for strategic metals and minerals based in Toronto, Canada — found Germany to be China's biggest customer for sourcing permanent magnets in 2024.

A call for responsible mining

China has reduced domestic mining for rare-earth elements, increasing the exploitation of deposits in neighboring Myanmar.

Chinese imports of so-called heavy rare earth elements from Myanmar skyrocketed from their previous highs of 19,500 tons in 2021 to 41,700 tons in 2023, the Global Witness report says.

"That's like a page out of the US playbook from the 20th century," said Julie Klinger, referring to the US approach of strategically not mining its domestic uranium deposits to safeguard them for later.

Lahtaw Kai says people in Myanmar don't want the Chinese to continue mining, and adds: "If the international community wants to continue buying these minerals, they should be responsibly sourced."

Myanmar's lucrative trade in rare earths  — worth $1.4 billion (€1.2 billion) in 2023, according to Global Witness — risks financing conflict and destruction in a highly volatile region.

In 2018, Myanmar's civilian-led government had banned exports and ordered Chinese miners to wind down operations, but since 2021, extraction has continued in the context of a ruthless dictatorship and widening civil conflict.

In late 2024, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and its allied military forces wrested control of most of the mineral-rich region in the north from forces allied with the central government. KIO has been fighting for the region's independence since the 1960s.

This power shift has led to new negotiations between KIO and Chinese producers on taxing rare earth extraction. 

While the KIO enjoys broad popular support in Kachin and greater legitimacy than government-allied militias, the 2024 Global Witness report says that on "both sides, this largely unregulated mining is environmentally devastating, and the threat it poses to ecosystems and to human health is becoming ever more urgent."

Will KIO enforce more responsible mining?

Lahtaw Kai and Seng Li demand more public oversight of safety at the operations.

"So far, civil society groups and the people have been excluded from the process of policy-making on mining [...] international organisations and governments should directly engage with the KIO to strengthen their governance," said Seng Li.

And although Seng Li doesn't think rare-earth mining can be stopped, he said conditions must be improved to "benefit not only the armed actors and the Chinese investors." The local populations and the state should "share the benefits, through systematic and regulated processes."

Mathis Richtmann is a business journalist with Deutsche Welle. 

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on DW, and is published by special syndication arrangement.