China · Bangkok Post
Myanmar tin mega-mine restarts operations
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YANGON - One of the world’s biggest tin mines, located in an autonomous region of war-torn Myanmar, is resuming operations suspended since 2023 and ramping up exports to China, a think tank said on Thursday.
Key facts
- YANGON - One of the world’s biggest tin mines, located in an autonomous region of war-torn Myanmar, is resuming operations suspended since 2023 and ramping up exports to China, a think tank said on Thursday.
- In 2016, Myanmar supplied nearly 500,000 tonnes of tin ore and concentrate to China, accounting for more than 99% of such imports, Beijing’s customs data shows.
- Tin is an element vital to the artificial intelligence industry, used as solder to attach microchips to circuit boards and bond together other electronics in data centres.
- China’s imports of tin ore and concentrates from Myanmar in the first half of 2026 have already surpassed 2025’s total at nearly 40,000 tonnes, customs data from China shows.
- Analysts say the group’s Chinese patronage and business ties have allowed Wa State to remain relatively insulated from the civil war consuming the rest of Myanmar since a 2021 military coup.
- The 2023 Man Maw mine shutdown was likely caused by a jostle for control among dynastic Wa groups, the Crisis Group said, rather than armed conflict.
Summary
Tin is an element vital to the artificial intelligence industry, used as solder to attach microchips to circuit boards and bond together other electronics in data centres.
The Man Maw mine in Wa state in eastern Myanmar emerged suddenly as a global supply lynchpin in the 2010s, making the country the world’s third-largest tin producer and the biggest supplier to China.