Rare earth mining exposes the contested politics of Myanmar’s borderlands

New research examines how rare earth extraction in northern Myanmar connects conflict-affected borderlands to global critical mineral supply chains.

In Contested Rare Earth Frontiers in the Myanmar–China Borderlands: Extraction, Conflict and Uneven Development, Dr Patrick Meehan (University of Manchester), Dan Seng Lawn (KRC), Dr Xu Peng (University of Manchester / SOAS CIVAD) and Professor Jonathan Goodhand (SOAS, University of London) examine the rare earth corridor linking Kachin State with Yunnan Province in China.

Since the mid-2010s, Kachin State has become a major source of heavy rare earths for China-centred supply chains. Yet extraction takes place amid armed conflict, environmental degradation, livelihood insecurity and contested political authority.

The research argues that these conditions are not evidence of the region’s isolation from global economies. Instead, they reflect how northern Myanmar has been incorporated into wider political and economic systems. The researchers also show how extraction is shaped by local political relations, war economies, territorial struggles and community livelihoods. It focuses particularly on developments since late 2024, when the Kachin Independence Army took control of major rare earth mining areas, disrupting the existing political economy of extraction.

The research contributes to SOC ACE’s The centrality of the margins: Borderlands, illicit economies and uneven development project, which examines how conflict-affected borderlands connect to wealth accumulation and development in metropolitan centres. Focusing on the illicit corridor between Myanmar’s north-eastern borderlands and Kunming, the project traces flows of capital, commodities and people and asks how these connections shape uneven patterns of development, security and accumulation.