A Chinese-backed copper mining company has chosen to cease work temporarily at its project sites in Sagaing Region’s Salingyi Township until the junta’s phased December and January elections have passed, locals and former employees said.

The company reportedly notified its workers that the pause in operations will last from the first week of December through the end of February 2026, citing “difficulties in obtaining fuel to operate machinery”, according to Myanmar Now’s sources.

Despite the rationale offered by the company, employees and Saglingyi Township locals suspect the real reason may be the increased risk of attacks by resistance forces who oppose the junta’s plans for elections and may seek to sabotage them.

The Myanmar military has stationed troops near the project site to guard it, with locals and resistance forces accusing the soldiers of firing frequently on neighbouring villages using heavy artillery and launching ground manoeuvres from inside the project compound.

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Myanmar Now contacted the Myanmar Wanbao company for comment about its reasons for closing the copper mining project site but received no response.

Thousands of residents reportedly fled their homes in 10 villages around the project site in October of this year as fighting intensified between resistance forces and the troops stationed on the Wanbao compound. Resistance forces had been launching shells into the compound, with the junta troops returning fire using heavy artillery and hitting the villages.

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“Some haven’t returned home yet to Hpaung Ka Tar village, which is adjacent to the compound. They don’t dare,” the administrator said. “Every other day or so at night, they bombard villages with civilians.”

In December of this year, the military began deploying forces to the checkpoint at Junction 51, a major road intersection near the project site, among other operations outside the site compound.

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“The army is acting differently from before,” the CMD participant and former Wanbao employee said. “In the past, they only worked to control the company compound. They only conducted outside patrols to protect their supply routes. Now they seem to have become more aggressive.”

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