Myanmar: Wanbao copper mine resumes amid intensified attacks on civilians, while parent NORINCO sells weapons to junta, report finds
"Costs of copper: Residents near mines suffer under junta’s heavy hand", Frontier Myanmar, 9 January 2026
Foreign companies have been extracting copper from Salingyi Township since the previous military dictatorship under General Than Shwe. In 1994, Canadian company Ivanhoe partnered with the Ministry of Mines [...] withdrew in 2010 due to Western sanctions.
Since then, the mines have been managed by the Chinese Wanbao Mining Ltd and its subsidiaries, Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd and Myanmar Yang Tse Copper Ltd, in collaboration with the military-owned Union of Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd.
Land seizures around the mines by Wanbao [...] sparked protests in 2012 that were violently suppressed [...]. Those disputes remain unresolved, and human rights violations around the mines have increased, especially since the 2021 military coup.
According to several locals [...] the Letpadaung mine was attacked by resistance groups.
“They use heavy artillery,” [...] “Even if we don’t attack them, civilians are hit.”
After the coup, thousands of staff at the copper mines quit their jobs [...].
By June 2024, however, mine workers began returning to their jobs due to economic hardship.
[...] the security situation has significantly deteriorated since mining resumed. Arrests and killings by junta troops have become regular occurrences. [...].
Not only is the mined copper of particular value to the junta, but it is also used in the production of weapons. The project’s parent company Norinco Group is owned by the Chinese military.
Norinco is allegedly selling weapons to the regime through Myanmar crony companies, [...].