Global demand for rare earth minerals is causing toxic pollution in some of Asia’s most important rivers, threatening the health and livelihoods of tens of millions of people.
Rare earths are at the center of intense geopolitical competition, particularly between the United States and China, with the latter establishing near-total control over the minerals as part of a broader industrial policy.
A global scramble for new resources is now underway, but the costs of unchecked mining are already evident in many mineral-rich regions.
The mighty Mekong River is the heart and lifeline of Southeast Asia. This rich ecosystem meanders through six countries, supporting approximately 70 million people who depend on its waterways for food, water, agriculture, and trade.
The river is also vital to global food production, exporting rice, freshwater fish, and shrimp to countries around the world, including the United States.
“There’s not a major U.S. supermarket that doesn’t carry products from the Mekong Delta,” said Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia and Energy, Water, and Sustainability Programs.
But the millions of people who live along the Mekong River and its tributaries – who drink, bathe and fish in its waters every day – may be exposed to deadly toxins from the region’s hundreds of unregulated mines, many of which are located in Myanmar’s war-torn and lawless regions.
A new study from the Stimson Center, a US-based think tank, has mapped “at scale” more than 2,400 sites, many of them unregulated mines across mainland Southeast Asia, that may be releasing dangerous pollutants such as cyanide, mercury, arsenic and other heavy metals directly into local waterways.
“It’s having a huge impact on the environment, and it all accumulates here, with potentially disastrous consequences for the Mekong River,” said Regan Kwan, a research analyst at the Stimson Center and principal investigator on the project.
Kwan and his team analyzed satellite images to identify and map mines, and found unregulated activity taking place on or along 43 rivers in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Sites include alluvial mining, primarily used for the extraction of gold, silver, and tin, in situ leaching, used for the extraction of rare earths, and heap leaching, used for the extraction of gold, copper, nickel, and manganese.
Each of these mining techniques uses different methods to extract metals and minerals, often using other chemicals such as mercury and sodium cyanide, which, if not properly contained or handled properly, can leach into the environment with dire consequences for rivers, wildlife, food, and human health.
Cyanide poisoning can be fatal, causing comas, seizures, and cardiac arrest. Mercury can accumulate through the food chain, potentially threatening plants and animals that consume it, including rice, one of the region’s biggest exports. Heavy metals leached during the extraction process can also accumulate in the environment and pose a threat to birds, fish, and humans.
Tests reportedly showed the presence of arsenic and other minerals in the water, and concerns over upstream contamination are impacting downstream communities living along Thailand’s Kok River near the Myanmar border.
“No one will eat the fish that come out of the river anymore,” Kwan said. “They weren’t sure if they would be able to eat the food that was being grown. They didn’t know what to do with the economic activity that revolved around the river.”
“Many of these people are subsistence farmers… They need to grow food to eat themselves. They need to grow food to sell,” he added.
The Mekong River is recognized as a clean river system that feeds tens of millions of people, but researchers fear that if pollution from the rare earth industry continues to grow unchecked, the ecosystem could collapse, with people living immediately downstream of mines at greatest risk of exposure to pollutants.
“The Mekong River could be an example of how not to mine rare earths because it would cause significant damage,” said Eiler, a co-author of the report. “This region is not small and hundreds of millions of people (could) be affected.”
Rare earths include 17 metallic elements that are essential to everyday products, from cars to jet engines to electronic devices such as smartphones and flat-screen televisions. They are also important in electric car batteries, MRI scanners, and cancer treatments.
The element itself is not rare and is more abundant than gold, but it is difficult and expensive to extract, and the process can have devastating effects on the environment.
Unchecked and unregulated mining flourishes in some regions where lax regulations, high levels of corruption, or areas of active conflict are closely linked.
Researchers say that while many of the mines are not new, the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, soaring gold prices and huge global demand for rare earths are prompting an increase in mining activity.
“The demand for products that use rare earths will only increase, and we are betting our future on clean energy projects and clean energy assets such as wind turbines,” Eiler said.
As a result, these industries are booming, with more mines opening or expanding operations every month in mainland Southeast Asia, the researchers said.
Almost 80% of the unregulated mining activities identified in the data take place in Myanmar, one of the world’s largest producers of rare earths.
The country has long been a center for the mining of jade, rubies, gold, copper, amber and other minerals, and its mining centers, concentrated in the north and east, are already notorious for being havens for dangerous, illicit and corrupt activity, with endemic poverty, dangerous working conditions and exploitation leading to methamphetamine addiction, sex work, human trafficking and other abuses.
This lucrative industry has been controlled for decades by Myanmar’s military and its proxy militias, enriching generals and funding arms in the country’s years-long fight against ethnic armed groups.
Rare earth mining in Myanmar has expanded rapidly in Kachin and Shan states since the coup and subsequent civil war, plunging the country into chaos and exacerbating already entrenched poverty and violence. Researchers say several rebel groups control the area where most of the landmines in the Stimson report are located.
“It’s almost a race to the bottom to see who can mine the most,” Kwan says.
“Myanmar has three ethnic armed groups, each of which opens new mines on a regular basis, but they do not coordinate with each other. And there are still demands from China to increase access to these heavy rare earth elements.”
Minerals mined in Myanmar are exported to China for processing.
China controls more than 90% of the world’s refined rare earth production, and many of Myanmar’s mines are run by Chinese managers and technical operators, the researchers said.
“The Chinese are always involved in rare earth mines in Myanmar and Laos because they are the only ones who know how to do this,” Kwan said.
China has also long been a major diplomatic supporter of Myanmar’s military junta and maintains significant influence over the many ethnic militias operating on the other side of the country’s border.
Asked by Reuters this week for comment on the latest Stimson Center findings, China’s Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of the situation.
“The Chinese side has consistently requested overseas Chinese enterprises to conduct production and business operations in accordance with local laws and regulations, and to take strict measures to protect the environment,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the United States recently signed memorandums of understanding on rare earths with several Southeast Asian countries as part of diversifying its dependence on imports from China.
Researchers are concerned that unregulated mining in the region will continue to increase due to growing demand for rare earths and gold, and are calling for urgent testing of rivers and floodplains to understand the extent of the problem and protect local communities.
Pai Deetes, executive director of the Thailand-based Rivers and Rights Foundation, said in a media briefing on Tuesday that while Southeast Asia is at the center of the global supply chain for rare earth minerals, human rights and environmental standards will continue to be exploited only along these rivers.
“It’s unfair that this region becomes a victim zone for this global demand,” she says.
