Western merchants, such as the Genoese Hieronimo de Santa Stefano who travelled in Myanmar and visited Pegu Bago and Ava Inn-wa in , commented on the abundance of rubies and other precious stones. He described the king in Pegu as wearing rubies to the value of a large city Myo Min None of these foreign visitors to Pegu were permitted to visit the mining areas. More recently, previously unknown or little-known areas such as Pyenglong, Mong Hsu, Namsa-hka and Nanyazeik have been actively mined and have produced considerable quantities of inferiorquality gemstones.
The company intended to develop both underground and open-cast mechanized mining and the washing of placer deposits throughout the Mogok Stone Tract.
A hydroelectric generating plant, the first in Asia, was built in to power some of the machinery. Flooding of the workings during the rainy season was a major problem until a tunnel was drilled 30 m below the workings to carry away the water. The business was highly lucrative until , when gem prices began to fall due to the arrival of synthetic gemstones on the market.
Ruby prices were further depressed during the First World War; after the war the company was badly managed and made unwise decisions. Eventually it was decided that mechanized mining was too expensive; the company went into voluntary liquidation in and was declared bankrupt in Mining then reverted to indigenous mining using traditional methods.
In the gem mining industry was nationalized and independent mining and trading of gems was made illegal. The government established the Myanma Gems Enterprise for gem mining by government-owned and local companies using mechanized mining; today the industry is flourishing.
Myanmar rubies and sapphires have the reputation of being of the finest quality in the world and Myanmar has proudly produced the largest pieces of uncut ruby carats , sapphire carats and peridot up to carats , all of which came from the Mogok area. Jade, utilized for its strength and durability, has been mined since antiquity. The art of carving and polishing of jade was developed in China; for a long time it was not appreciated that much of the raw material for the jade ornaments and jewellery sold in China originated in Myanmar.
Jadeitite dykes occur cutting serpentinite in the Hpakant area of Kachin State in northern Myanmar. Jadeite also occurs as boulders dispersed in the Uru Boulder conglomerate, poorly consolidated Plio-Pleistocene alluvial deposits, in the Hpakant Basin, tilted and uplifted to more than m, and are found scattered along all the recent drainage systems in the area Chhibber , b.
The largest piece of jade found measured Several lead—zinc occurrences are known in Myanmar, and a few of them contain significant amounts of silver. Reportedly, the famous Ming Dynasty silver was mined in part from Myanmar Territory. Silver was mined by the Chinese for a period of years from the early part of the fourteenth century at the world-renowned Bawdwin Mine in Northern Shan State until mining was terminated around AD due to the Panthay Rebellion against the Manchu Government —73 by Chinese Muslims Hui and other minority ethnic groups in Yunnan.
Slag left by the old miners can still be found at several localities in the country at the present day. The abundance of old workings in the Bawdwin area attracted the attention of mining companies, and in a British company formed the Burma Mines Development and Agency, obtaining a lease in the area which covered four square miles.
The enterprise changed hands several times before being taken over by the Burma Corporation Ltd Chhibber b. Initially the company smelted slag left by the old miners at Mandalay, but also conducted intensive exploration in the Bawdwin area. Ore was discovered at deeper levels and the company developed a successful modern mine at Bawdwin, with an ore dressing plant and smelter in the Namtu area.
Production ceased during the earlier part of the war, but the Japanese reopened the mine until the concentrator plant was severely damaged by allied bombing. After the war the mine was rehabilitated by the Burma Corporation Ltd. However, production never reached pre-war levels, due to the lack of an adequate concentrator plant. The Bawdwin Mine was nationalized in Oxidized near-surface ore is now being mined because the rich underground ore at Bawdwin has declined gradually in reserve and grade.
In addition to lead and silver, the Bawdwin ores contain zinc, copper, antimony and nickel. Old slag containing zinc still remains at the smelter site and the original copper-rich portion of the ore body remains in place at depth in the mine.
The administration of the mining and extraction of lead, zinc, silver and copper is the responsibility of the No. The geological setting, exploration and mining of the Bawdwin Mine is described by Gardiner et al. Several copper occurrences are known in Myanmar Khin Zaw et al. Attempts had been made to mine this deposit from the time of the Myanmar kings but this low-grade, large-tonnage high-sulphidation copper type of mineralization requires the use of heavy mining equipment and modern metal extraction techniques, requiring substantial investment for the development of a successful mining operation.
Successful methods for the exploitation of these deposits, in contrast to the rich ores of lode type, were only developed at the beginning of the twentieth century. It has taken some time for mining of the Monywa deposit to be developed successfully. Since when the MRDC was formed, the huge Monywa deposit has been explored by drilling and studied for resource assessment. Mining became fully operational in and pure metallic copper has been extracted since The ore deposit fortunately contains the minerals chalcocite and covellite, which are soluble in acid and amenable to solution with the electrolytic extraction SX-EW of pure copper.
The Ivanhoe Mining Company reported that this deposit is of world class, and forms the second-largest source of copper in Southeast Asia. Chromite mineralization occurs as pods and disseminations in serpentinized dunite and peridotite. The most significant lateritic nickel deposits occur at Tagaung Taung and Mwetaung.
Tin and tungsten minerals occur in pegmatite and quartz veins along the margins of granitic bodies and in sedimentary rocks close to intrusive granite contacts Mi Paik ; Than Htun et al. Primary tin and tungsten, and associated detrital and placer deposits, have long been known to occur in a linear belt extending northwards from Tananitharyi Tenasserim along the western margin of the Shan Plateau to the Yamethin area, forming the northern branch of the Southeast Asian Tin belt, which continues southwards through Peninsular Thailand and Malaysia to the Indonesian islands of Bangka and Billiton.
Mining and smelting of tin was carried out by local people in Myanmar long before the arrival of the British. In an English traveller, Ralph Fitch, reported that there were great stores of tin in Tenasserim, which supplied the whole of India. A total of P-4 category tin ore reserve of 29 tonnes and P-3 category tin ore reserve of tonnes were estimated in five potential offshore areas Than Htun et al. There are still potential tin mining prospects offshore in the southern portion of the Myeik Mergui Archipelago.
Gold occurs in placer deposits and in unconsolidated or poorly consolidated Quaternary—Recent detrital sediments and as primary deposits in quartz veins in igneous and metamorphic rocks in many parts of Myanmar Ye Myint Swe et al. Indigenous mining has been conducted in several areas since the time of the Myanmar kings, when the local people paid an annual tribute to the king in gold.
As placer gold is so widespread, primary gold deposits can be expected in the upper reaches of the river drainage basins. Mining of primary gold deposits has been conducted at Kyaukpazat to the north of Wuntho since before the First World War, and continues at a small scale today by a local company. Gold mineralization in the MMB occurs as skarn-type or as orogenic gold-quartz veins in marbles, calc-silicates and gneisses e. Thabeikkyin-Kwinthonze area.
Gold mining, together with tin and tungsten mining, was previously administered by the Ministry of Mines but now by No. The majority of antimony deposits in Myanmar are formed as shallow, lowtemperature hydrothermal deposits filling fissures, joints, shear zones and selectively replacing rocks, showing preference for massive carbonates. The antimony minerals in Myanmar are stibnite, senarmontite, valentinite, cervantite, kermesite and rarely native antimony.
The Palaeozoic stratabound antimony deposits are the most important style of mineralization in Myanmar e. Tha Byu and Natsan. At Lebyin, the stibnite veins are hosted in greywacke, quartzite and shales of possible Carboniferous age and closely associated with Mesozoic granite intrusion; antimony may be accompanied by arsenic and gold.
The geological settings, classification, distribution and origins of the antimony ores in Myanmar are described by Toe Aung Kyaw Notable historical earthquakes occurred in at Inn-wa, in at Bago, in at Bagan and in at Taungdwingyi. However, not all instrumentally recorded earthquakes produce significant effects such as the destruction of buildings or other infrastructure or deaths in the population. These effects depend on the magnitude of the earthquake, its depth, the amount of movement, the nature of the substrate with the effects being less on solid rock and greatest on soft alluvial sediments and on the density of the population in the affected area.
It is estimated that 3 cm of the average 5 cm annual movement between the Indian Plate and Southeast Asia is taken up by strike-slip and thrust motions, distributed along numerous faults in the Indo-Myanmar Ranges of Myanmar. The remaining 2 cm is taken up along the Sagaing and associated strike-slip faults further east Vigny et al. Earthquakes of Richter magnitude 4.
Further east, a concentration of shallow hypocentres is related to strike-slip movements along the Sagaing Fault and related faults, extending northwards from the Ayeryarwaddy Delta into the Central Lowlands. In a magnitude 6. Fortunately, the earthquake occurred in a sparsely populated area and only one person was killed; several ancient monuments were, however, damaged, in particular near the Ayeyarwaddy River, and three production rigs in the Chauk oilfield were toppled.
According to the Myanmar Director of Archaeology, this was the worst earthquake recorded in Bagan over the last years. They identified two seismic gaps along which earthquakes of up to M w 7.
This is significant since the trace of the fault passes through Nay Pyi Taw, the recently established capital of Myanmar. The group is excavating trenches along the trace of the fault to determine the timing and slip rate of past phases of movement along the fault, in collaboration with Japanese universities, EOS and Royal Holloway University of London e.
Than Tin Aung et al. Earthquakes with scattered hypocentres occur in eastern Shan State near the borders with China, Laos and Thailand related to strike-slip movements in the central part of Southeast Asia, extending into China. In an earthquake of magnitude M w 6. A total of 73 people were killed and houses, government buildings, Buddhist monasteries, roads and bridges were damaged. Myanmar is also exposed to other natural hazards, especially storms, cyclones, floods and landslides, often leading to disasters that affect many more people than earthquakes.
For example, earthquake-related disasters have led to reported deaths since , while floods and landslides resulted in deaths over the same period Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters Floods in affected 12 out of 14 states and regions, displaced over 1.
Losses to the economy due to these floods and landslides were estimated at about 1. The worst-hit areas were in the central and western part of the country, based on rainfall and river discharge data provided by the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology. The department conducted hydrological simulations over the period — using satellite-derived data, and performed extreme-value analysis Gumbel. These analyses characterized the floods as a rare event, one with an estimated return period of 20—50 years depending on the location within the Ayeyarwady subcatchments Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar The floods also caused morphological changes leading to river bank erosion, newly eroded river channels and landslides in mountainous areas.
In Hakha Township in the Chin State, unprecedented rainfall caused devastating landslides. The monthly rainfall of July measured at the weather station in Hakha would be equal to a 1-inyears rainfall. This, combined with the nature of mudstone, shale and colluvial deposits around Hakha, explains the widespread and devastating landslides and, in particular, the reactivation of a large, old and deep-seated landslide on which parts of Hakha had been built, as revealed by a detailed geological and geo-engineering study Win Myint et al.
The massive landslide affecting Hakha was known locally as the Rung Taung Landslide and has elsewhere been called the Tonzang Landslide, the largest nonseismic landslide for a decade. Satellite and seismic data showed that the landslide measured 5. The Rung Taung and other landslides caused extensive destruction to roads and homes; in Hakha, hundreds of houses were relocated to a safer area.
The huge tsunami generated by the December earthquake, with an epicentre off the coast of Sumatra, caused considerable destruction and loss of life in eight countries around the Indian Ocean. In Myanmar, with 71 fatalities Satake et al. Unfortunately these same areas were more severely affected a few years later by cyclone Nargis in ; the 4 m high wall of water left at least dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, with rice fields inundated and rendered unproductive by the influx of salt water.
Myanmar is endowed with abundant natural and mineral resources. However, as in many other developing countries, Myanmar is suffering from environmental degradation as a result of deforestation with concomitant soil erosion and the release into the environment of waste materials containing deleterious chemicals from mining, industrial processes and modern agricultural practices. Environmental degradation and social impacts have increased in recent years due to the application of unregulated methods in mining and processing to increase productivity.
The growing trend towards new mining methods, particularly the shift from underground to open-cut methods and to mining and processing of low-grade ores, will contribute to the generation of large volumes of waste rock and tailings; these present a major challenge for disposal, particularly in the Jade mining area of Phakant, northern Myanmar Kyi Htun The absence of an efficient legal framework for artisanal and smallscale mining ASM for gold and gemstones, together with the application of mechanized mining, contribute to the adverse environmental and social impact of mining operations.
Despite the fact that Myanmar is endowed with world-class resources, the mineral industry is still in its infancy due to several decades of isolation. Strict environmental guidelines need to be established and implemented for mineral and energy exploration and mining and processing to avoid pollution, acid mine drainage and cyanide, mercury and arsenic contamination.
In order to achieve sustainable development, all the PSC operators have to conduct Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessments related to petroleum operations, and submit specific environmental management plans before the start of work programmes. PSC operators should also be required to submit a CSR programme throughout the period of exploration and production. Other potential sites include the Padaukpin Coral Reef in Northern Shan State, which is world-renowned as a site with a diverse Palaeozoic fossil assemblage.
This site contains a marine biota that flourished in the Palaeotethys Ocean, similar to the present-day diverse faunal and floral community around the Galapagos Islands. In addition, there are many caves throughout the country and also gem and jade mining areas in northern Myanmar.
All these sites are currently being badly exploited and maintained; they are rapidly disappearing and the environment is becoming hugely degraded. If these assets are not properly managed and regulated, there will be nothing left for future generations to enjoy. Sign In or Create an Account.
User Tools. Sign In. Advanced Search. Skip Nav Destination Book Chapter. Author s. Khin Zaw Khin Zaw. Google Scholar. Win Swe Win Swe. Barber A. Crow M. Get Permissions. This content is available without a subscription. It may not be altered in any way and proper attribution is required. View large Download slide. Map showing states and regions of Myanmar Div.
Map showing physiography of Myanmar. Brown colour denotes land above m. Aung Zaw. Geochemistry and geochronology of granites hosting the Mawchi Sn-W deposit, Myanmar: Implications for tectonic setting and emplacement. Aye Ko. Unpublished Report Structure of Sumatra and its implications for the tectonic assembly of Southeast Asia and the destruction of Palaeotethys. The origin, movement and assembly of the pre-Tertiary tectonic units of Thailand. Detrital chrome spinel evidence for a Neotethyan intra-oceanic island arc collision with India in the Paleocene.
Tectonics of the western margin of the Shan plateau central Myanmar : implication for the India-Indochina oblique convergence since the Oligocene. The Pyu earthquake of 3rd and 4th December and subsequent Burma earthquakes up to January A short description of the mines of precious stones in the district of Kyatpyen, in the Kingdom of Ava. Printing and Publishing Corporation. Eastern Chin and Arakan Mineral Survey.
BGR Archive, No. The Bawdwin Mine, Myanmar: a review of its geological setting and genesis. The metallogenic provinces of Burma: their definitions, geologic relationships and extension into China, India and Thailand. Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Two seismic gaps on the Sagaing Fault, Myanmar, derived from relocation of historical earthquakes since Khin Mar. Khin Maung. Fluid inclusion of studies on the Hermyingyi tungsten-tin deposit southern Burma.
Mineral deposits in Myanmar: their exploration potentials and sustainable development. Mineral deposits projects in Myanmar: exploration potentials and sustainable development. Overview of mineralization styles and tectonicmetallogenic setting in Myanmar. Vanadium-rich ruby and sapphire within Mogok Gemfield, Myanmar: implications for gem color and genesis.
The igneous rocks of the Mogok Stone Tract: their distribution, petrography, petrochemistry, sequence, geochronology and economic geology. Arakan Coastal Ranges in western Myanmar, geology and provenance of Neogene siliciclastic sequences: implications for the tectonic evolution of the Himalaya—Bengal System.
La Touche. An outline of the geology of the oil-bearing regions of the Chindwin-Irrawaddy valley of Burma and Assam-Arakan. Base metal concentrations in kaolinised and silicified lavas of the Central Burma volcanics. A preliminary synthesis of the geological evolution of Burma with reference to the tectonic development of Southeast Asia. The metamorphic petrology, structures and mineral resources of the Shantaung-u-Thandawmywet Range, Kyaukse District.
Structure and kinematics of the IndoBurmese Wedge: recent and fast growth of the outer wedge. First global positioning system results from northern Myanmar: constant and localised slip rate along the Sagaing Fault. Geochemistry and geochronology of granitoid rocks in the Mawpalaw Taung area, Thanbyuzayat Township, southern Myanmar: their petrogenesis and tectonic setting. Zircon U—Pb ages in Myanmar: magmatic—metamorphic events and the closure of a neo-Tethys ocean? Current tectonic activity along the Sagaing Fault, Myanmar, indicated by alluvial fans.
The Eastern Back-arc Basin of Central Myanmar: Basement rocks, lithostratigraphic units, palaeocurrents, provenance and developmental history. Naing Maw. Nwe Nwe. Mineralogic, geologic and genetic aspects of corundum deposits, Bawpadan-Chinthe Taung area, Mogok. A catalogue of Indian earthquakes from the earliest times to the end of A. Notes on the geological features of the banks of the Irrawaddy, and of the country to the north of Amarapoora.
A narrative of the mission sent by the GovernorGeneral to the Court of Ava in Tsunami heights and damage along the Myanmar coast from the December Sumatra—Andaman earthquake. Tectonic and thermal evolution of Thailand in the regional context of Southeast Asia.
Tectonic and metamorphic evolution of the Mogok Metamorphic and Jade Mines belts and ophiolitic terranes of Burma Myanmar. Ion microprobe zircon U—Pb age and geochemistry of the Myanmar jadeitite dyke. A Permian palaeobiogeographic and regional appraisal. Soe Thura. Parallel Tethyan sutures in mainland Southeast Asia: new insights for Palaeo-Tethys closure and implications for the Indosinian Orogeny. Geology of the Mt. Popa volcano and associated post-Palaeogene volcanics, Central Burma.
Electrodialysis of mineral silicates: an experimental study of rock weathering. Than Tin. Geological evidence for three great earthquakes in the past years off Myanmar. Thet Tin. Toe Aung. Skip to main content. This service is more advanced with JavaScript available. Advertisement Hide. Authors Authors and affiliations A. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Tectonic and geologic evolution of Thailand. Google Scholar. Southeast Asian tin granites: magmatism and mineralization in subduction and collision-related settings.
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Geology 10, — Geology of Burma. Borntraeger, Berlin. Malaysia and Southeast Asia in the pattern of continental drift.
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