The Jade Rush

Phakant in Kachin state was a very quiet town among the forests in northern Myanmar, before someone centuries ago found the great treasure lying beneath it – jade.

Today, Phakant is one of the most important and dynamic cities in the country's economic landscape because it is one of a few major places on earth that produces the gem.  It has also become popular in the international gems market for its quality jades, and most of the jade ends up across the border in China.

British explorers were the first who started taking large amounts of the green stones out of Phakant. Since then, the town has never seen real peace. Since Myanmar’s independence in 1948, governments and rebels have tried to gain control over Phakant because of its rich natural resources. During the socialist era, gems were one of the few financial sources that allowed the government in Rangoon to keep marching on toward its dream of what it called the Burmese way to socialism.  But Phakant also never forgot to support native Kachin rebels with its green treasures. For decades, civil war in northern Myanmar was fuelled by the precious stones of Phakant. It is a place where one can see army officials and ethnic rebels digging for stones side by side, in the same place.

Phakant  is 1,500 kilometres north of Rangoon and some 160 km north-west of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state. The area is under the control of the Myanmar Armed Forces Northern Command – indeed, every commander who gets appointed to take charge of this armed forces unit always has an eye on Phakant. 
The nationwide uprising calling for a multi-party democratic system in 1988 changed the nation's political and economical landscape. Burma’s military government, which promised to hold a free and fair election, also vowed that the country would open its doors to the world  economy. The new economic policy brought in a new wave of investors and increased productivity to places like Phakant.

In the early 1990s, the government in Rangoon achieved a ceasefire with Kachin rebels, whose leaders were accommodated in the region's new economy with attractive incentives. The military government strategically accommodated the Kachin rebels by giving them plots in Phakant. Kachin rebels, well known for their guerrilla tactics, became businessmen. Since then, Myanmar soldiers and Kachin rebels have literally been digging into the earth together in Phakant.

But the Kachin rebels were not the only dissidents who stopped fighting the government, as there were 18 other rebel groups that did so. This meant that there was a larger number of groups interested in going into the jade industry.

By then, China's economic miracle was pushing up the demand for jade from the Phakant mines. Buyers from China's south-western Yunnan province, just across the border from Kachin, were on top of the jade business. The Chinese people’s belief that the jade brings good luck was much appreciated by people in Phakant. Phakant's stones were a hit in overseas Chinese markets as well. The more people wanted to adorn themselves with jade, the more diggers headed for Phakant. 
But the harvest of jade is also coming at a cost to the environment.

Over the years, miners have sliced through the mountains, and lakes have become plains. Trees have been uprooted and forests swept away. Since there could be gems underneath every hectare in this region, every piece of land became precious. The government issued licenses to companies for 400 Lakhs kyat per acre and anyone who wants to mine jade has to buy licenses from license holders with 1,500 Lakhs kyat per acre.

Whenever authorities and the jade processing companies needed to start new jade mining sites, villagers were displaced to places far from where they had been living for generations. Often, they chose to stay in nearby areas until they were asked again to move to another place.

The U-Ru Creek, which has been flowing through Phakant for centuries, is threatened by jade mining. Until the early 1990s, U-Ru was a clean and green creek, according to a man who migrated to Phakant 15 years ago. Its water was clear as crystal and fish were thriving. Its surrounds was lush with trees, he continued.

But now, the creek is dying. Miners tried to block the Wai Khar creek from flowing into the U-Ru creek, in order to cut the road travel distance between the mining site and the city. This diverted the natural flow of the water, so that villages in the area have problems with flooding. The more the miners dug, the more soil from their operation blocked both the U-Ru and Wai Khar creeks. Seikmu village along the Wai Khar creek is also flooded and buried in mud, forcing locals to leave their homes.

Once one of the greenest regions of Myanmar, Phakant has become a plain field whose carved-out landscape is a testament to the work of people who cut it up in search of wealth.