International companies implicated in scramble Shan state’s Gold under Myanmar junta

An Australian-led mining company has carried on searching for gold in eastern Shan State more than one year after its primary investor withdrew from multiple projects in the country, Myanmar Now has learned.

Locrian Precious Metals, headed by two Australians and one Myanmar national, is active in what the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) recently termed a “gold mining expansion” that has unfolded in Tachileik Township since the February 2021 coup.

The area in question is in the Loi Kham hills near the town of Ta Ler (also known as Tarlay), 45km northeast of Tachileik’s administrative centre. Multiple local military-linked companies have newly been granted mining access to the area by the junta, alongside scores of smaller enterprises that are reportedly digging without licences, instead “paying off” the military authorities in exchange for access, according to an August SHRF report.

Meanwhile, Locrian has three years remaining on its own five-year exploratory permit covering 456 sq km of land in eastern Tachileik.

Perth-based mining firm Myanmar Metals held a majority stake in Locrian’s eastern Shan State project until March 2021, when it terminated the relationship in the aftermath of the coup. Less than six months earlier, in a newsletter seen by Myanmar Now, CEO John Lamb celebrated Locrian as “a great addition” to the company’s portfolio, lauding its claim on “one of Asia’s most exciting gold districts.”

“In due course, we will undertake the first systematic exploration program the Tarlay Gold Belt has ever seen,” Lamb was quoted as saying.