NEW laws will soon be enacted to restrict jade production within the Lonekhin and Hpakant mining blocks in Kachin State, said Union Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation U Ohn Win at a session of the Amyotha Hluttaw yesterday.
No more jade mining blocks will be allowed, and restrictions will be set on the current jade mining businesses operating in the regions, added the Union minister.
Although the Myanmar Gems Law has been enacted further rules and regulations will be drawn up by the ministry.
In his report to the Parliament the Union minister said that heavy vehicles that exceed the permitted number of machines used on mining site to extract jade were prohibited following regular field trips of an inspection teams led by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The present government limited the number of heavy machinery allowed for jade mining based on the size of the mining sites, allowing miners to use five excavators and 10 dumpers for an area under 10 acres, 12 excavators and 36 dumpers for area between 10 acres to 30 areas and 20 excavators and 48 dumpers only.
Coordination and cooperation efforts will be made among the ministries concerned, the regional government and Tatmadaw columns to ensure the enforcement of current and future rules and regulations in mining areas, the Union minister told the Parliament.
Punitive actions will be taken against jade mining companies that fail to follow directives on discarding waste soil, he added.
According to statistics, jade mining operations are run on 305 blocks run in joint venture with the government and 7,344 are held by private companies on a mining area of 1,744,757 acres in Lonekhin and Hpakant of Kachin State.
The share of mining blocks under the government’s semi-control accounts for 1.25 per cent of the total mining area in Hpakant.
Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar
