Nickel-chromium mining in Mwetaung stops in rainy season
Khonumthung News
April 21, 2007
Nickel and chromium mining by the Chinese Kenbo Company has ground to a halt in Mwetaung (Snake Mountain) in Chin state near Kalay Myo, Sagaing division, Upper Burma this month with the onset of the monsoons.
€ ¦’³The rains start in April and mining cannot be executed properly€ ¦’´, a local in Kalay Myo said.
The equipment used for mining like digging machines, stone crushers, and bulldozers are kept in Kalay Myo.
The Kenbo Company has been mining in Mwetaung as part of an experiment, so there is no proper place to store the heavy equipment and it is dangerous for miners during the rainy season because of frequent landslides, so mining activities are restrictive in nature.
The Mwetaung mine is 15 miles from Kalay Myo, Sagaing Division. There are 60 workers and each earn Kyat 45,000 a month by shifting stone crusher machines from one place to another and fitting and dismantling the machines when work starts or stops, he added.
Kenbo Company officials transport nickel and chromium to their branch in Kale Myo in three jeeps everyday. They pay Kyat 7 lakhs for a jeep and Kyat 2 lakhs to a driver a month.
All raw materials are transported from Kale Myo to China.
Kenbo Company has a restaurant near Mwetaung and they sell Chinese dishes.
The SPDC government and a private Chinese Company, Kenbo had signed a MOU for 40 years in August 2005. Mining for nickel and chromium began in Mwetaung in early 2006 but work stops in the monsoons every year.
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