Myanmar rare earths have become a critical global supply source, but illegal mining is financing armed groups, accelerating environmental destruction and contaminating the Mekong River across Southeast Asia.
Myanmar rare earths threaten both global supply chains and the Mekong ecosystem
Myanmar has become the world’s leading supplier of heavy rare earth elements. Since the 2021 military coup and the country’s deepening political instability, the formal economy has largely collapsed. Mining operations are concentrated in remote mountainous areas along the Chinese border, where ethnic armed groups control large territories. The multi-billion-dollar trade has become a major source of revenue for local militias, effectively helping finance Myanmar’s prolonged civil war. At the same time, Myanmar rare earths mining is contaminating the Mekong River basin and creating growing environmental risks across Southeast Asia.
An investigation published in July 2026 by Rest of World, originally produced in collaboration with Grist and the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network, examines the human, environmental and geopolitical cost of Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry, whose output is shipped primarily to China.
Environmental destruction driven by Myanmar rare earths mining
The extraction method used for heavy rare earths is highly destructive. Entire mountainsides are injected with acidic chemical solutions that dissolve the minerals before they are collected. The process strips forests, destabilizes slopes, destroys landscapes and contaminates rivers, groundwater and agricultural land that local communities rely on for their livelihoods.
Companies involved in the sector face little accountability inside Myanmar because much of the industry operates in a legal grey area. Chinese companies extract rare earths in autonomous, heavily militarized regions controlled by local armed groups, which protect mining operations in exchange for a share of the profits. The ore is then transported by truck across the border into China, where it is blended with material from other sources before processing.
Myanmar’s civil war and the strategic importance of rare earths
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project, Myanmar’s civil war ranks as the world’s second most intense conflict and the most fragmented, involving more than 1,200 recognized armed groups. Weak governance and widespread corruption have fueled an unprecedented expansion of organized crime. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime ranks Myanmar as the country with the highest levels of organized criminal activity worldwide.
China, which controls more than 90% of global rare earth processing capacity, began restricting exports last year in response to US tariffs. Those export controls have encouraged governments and manufacturers to diversify their supply chains.
Meanwhile, according to The Hidden Cost of Myanmar’s Rare Earths, Myanmar’s military government, heavily affected by international sanctions, has sought closer engagement with the Trump administration. In May 2026, the United States and India signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation on securing critical mineral supplies. Days later, Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing visited India and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where discussions reportedly included opportunities to expand cooperation on rare earths, despite the fact that most mining areas remain outside the military’s direct control.
Pollution spreads beyond Myanmar’s borders
Unregulated gold and rare earth mines in Myanmar’s Shan State have caused severe contamination along transboundary rivers flowing into northern Thailand before reaching the Mekong River.
“Arsenic contamination carried downstream from rare earth and gold mining sites in Myanmar has already polluted riverbank sediments,” environmental scientist Dr. Suebsakun Kidnukorn of Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai said in an interview. “Thailand’s Pollution Control Department has detected unusually high arsenic concentrations in the Mekong River. The contamination has entered the food chain, creating potentially devastating consequences for the region.”
Nature crimes are becoming increasingly intertwined with organized crime
A recent report by the non-profit organization Forest Trends found that environmental crimes, including the illegal extraction and trade of natural resources, are now deeply embedded within broader illicit economies across the Mekong region. Rising global demand for rare earth elements could further intensify illegal mining in Myanmar while fueling conflict and organized crime.
According to Forest Trends, illegal resource extraction provides armed groups and criminal organizations with revenue streams that operate outside the formal banking system, helping finance a wide range of illicit activities.
The report, Nature Crimes: The Convergence of Criminal Economies in the Mekong Region, shows that illegal mining and natural resource trafficking, particularly in the Golden Triangle spanning Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, generate billions of dollars in hard currency that finance drug trafficking, cyber scam compounds, human trafficking and money laundering networks across Asia.
The convergence between environmental crimes and wider criminal economies has accelerated dramatically since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. Importing countries have purchased more than USD 30 billion worth of natural resources from Myanmar during this period. China remains by far the dominant buyer of heavy rare earths, which are essential for clean energy technologies and advanced defense systems. In 2023 alone, officially reported exports of rare earths to China reached USD 1.5 billion.
Forest Trends calls for stronger law enforcement cooperation, coordinated cross-border sanctions and far stricter oversight of critical mineral supply chains to curb illegal extraction and reduce the financing of armed conflict.
