Illegal alluvial gold mining has increased on the Ayeyarwady River in Shwegu (Shweku) Township, Kachin State, according to locals.
Illegal gold mining on the Ayeyarwady River in that region has been happening for a long time. Initially, following the February 2021 coup, gold mining activities in the area surged, but they completely halted in late November 2023 because locals protested and the junta started confiscating and burning alluvial mining rafts.
The mining operations resumed less than a year later, in August 2024, and now there are around 100 illegal alluvial gold mining rafts again operating on the Ayeyarwady River in Shwegu Township, with the majority of them operating around the villages of Ngapaukwa and Sintat.
A 40-year-old resident of Shwegu Town who spoke to KNG said: "Starting in August, one or two rafts returned to the river, and within about a month, many more arrived. Now, the river section near Shwegu [Town] is packed with rafts, and we’ve heard they’re extracting quite a large amount of gold too.”
Teams of divers dive from the rafts to the riverbeds and use high pressure water pumps to blast the riverbed and break apart the soil, which is then pumped up to the raft and processed to separate the gold from the soil. This process uses mercury which is highly toxic to people and wildlife.
The mining is done by people from Kachin State townships such as Myitkyina and Bhamo as well as locals from Shwegu Township and people from further away places in Myanmar, such as Sagaing Region.
Locals are worried that excessive gold mining along the Ayeyarwady River will harm the riverbed and ecosystem, cause the river’s banks to collapse and adversely affect plantations and farmlands along the river’s banks.
The illegal mining operations around Shwegu Town are being allowed to operate because they have paid bribes to both the junta and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
Excessive and unchecked large-scale gold mining along the Ayeyarwady River has altered the river's topography and that of its tributaries, causing significant environmental damage and increased flooding during heavy rains.
