Myanmar: Kachin Tycoon Draws Controversy over Gold Mining at Myitsone

Feb 11, 2022 | Emily Fisbhein, Jaw Tu Hkwang, Nu Nu Lusan, and Jauman Naw, Frontier Myanmar
View Original

The confluence, known as Myitsone in Burmese and Mali N’Mai Zup in Kachin, captured global attention in 2011 when then-President U Thein Sein suspended a controversial US$3.6 billion hydropower project at the site. Launched two years earlier, the proposed Myitsone dam, a joint venture between China’s State Power Investment Corporation and Myanmar’s Asia World conglomerate, was expected to flood an area bigger than Singapore and displace more than 10,000 people.