Jade Mine

Mining areas are in Kachin State and Sagaing Region.

Both serve the world and in particular Chinese market where most of the mined boulders and rocks are exported to. There is a rather small production in Mandalay with some workshops.

The town of Pharkant or Hpakant is in Kachin State west of Myitkyina, the area holds the riches sources of jadeite > in the world. Since decades earth-movers tear off hills and jungle, crawling deeper and deeper into the lush tropical forest, this is Wild West Myanmar style. Jade is mined here since hundreds of years,only the method changed over time, before they did it with the shovel, today they do it with a flotilla of Chinese made earth movers because the US didn't want to sell it to them.

Kachin State Pharkant jade mines >


With a population of about 130,000, Hpakant is the center of the countries jade mining operations.This is far away in the remote north of “upper Burma” as the British called it between India and China.

The other mine district at Khamti (Sagaing Region >) geologically belongs to the mining area at Phakant tract. Small companies divided into 180 cooperative joint-venture.

Precious stones are among Myanmar’s largest source of foreign cash.

Jade mountain in Kachin State

The are only second to oil, natural gas and agricultural exports. Many firms in the country are joint ventures between private mining companies, both foreign and Myanmar, and people from the military, Chinese locals and foreigners are the biggest investor into these joint ventures because gem-quality jade is highly prized.

While China mines some of its own jade, which is nephrite, a lesser quality version.

The bulk of Burmese jade is also sold to China. Kachin State  and other areas around were the territory under their dynasties for a limited time. This changed a bit after the Kublai Khan invasion to Bagan > but not so much.

Myanmar jade mine

Today the country is mainly considered as a raw material source, just the same as under British colonial rules.

Miners legal or illegal earn about $1 per day. 

The type of the mineral found here is jadeite > it comes in different color among them is green which is also known as imperial green jade and is found only in Myanmar. The most of it is exported or smuggled to China some is manufactured into jewelry, art and sculptures at Mandalay, it is a very valuable material and can bring in thousands of dollars, most cutting, polishing and selling for the local market is done in Mandalay.

People from across the country come to this place in search for a job and end up as illegal jade miner sifting through dregs of soil searching for pieces of the green mineral which maybe have been overlooked when it was dumped by the mine >.

The Pharkant or Hpakant mines are 170km west from Myitkyina or 108km west of Moekaung by train which again is about 1000km north of Yangon. The word Pharkant precisely defines the place in Shan language, it means "the place where the wall is chipped off. The town is on the west side of the URU river, there are state and private companies digging for the green stone.

Some years ago the Myanmar's tried to purchase heavy equipment, trucks, loaders etc. from the US, they arrogantly refused to supply since they still think the rule the world. Just in the same foolish way as the English destroyed the country during colonial times.

English killing Burmese at the old Yangon stockades >

After the Chinese came in and the whole mining business in the country is a domain of the neighbors now. Only Japanese and Koreans were not so unintelligent and helped them to develop the copper mining at Monywa >, now they earn quite some money with it.