Hpakant ( my, ဖားကန့်, ; Shan Language: ၽႃၵၢၼ်ႉ, also Hpakan and Phakant) is a town in

Hpakant Township Hpakant Township"Myanmar States/Divisions ...

Kachin State Kachin State ( my, ကချင်ပြည်နယ်; Jingpho language, Kachin: ), also known by the endonym Kachinland, is the northernmost administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east ...

of the northernmost part of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(Burma). It is located on the Uyu River 350 km north of

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fou ...

. It is famous for its

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group ...

mines which

produce Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables ( grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are fres ...

the world's best quality

jadeite Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition Na Al Si2 O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, but is most often found in shades ...

History

The word Hpakant comes from the

Shan language The Shan language (written Shan: , , spoken Shan: , or , ; my, ရှမ်းဘာသာ, ; th, ภาษาไทใหญ่, ) is the native language of the Shan people and is mostly spoken in Shan State, Myanmar. It is also spoken in ...

words for rock fall. Hpakant was first established in 1832 as a village but shortly afterwards the village was destroyed in a landslide. Thereafter, Hpakant was established for the second time in 1836. In 2011, fighting broke out between the

Kachin Independence Army The Kachin Independence Army (KIA; Kachin: ''ShangLawt Hpyen''; my, ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးတပ်မတော်) is a non-state armed group and the military wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), a po ...

and the

Myanmar Army The Myanmar Army ( my, တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း), ) is the largest branch of the Tatmadaw, Armed Forces (''Tatmadaw'') of Myanmar (Burma) and has the primary responsibility of conducting land-based military operations. The My ...

in the area around the Hpakant jade mines, displacing an estimated 90,000 people by September 2012 and killing hundreds of others.

Political economy

Since after the

(KIA) came into the area before negotiating a

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state ac ...

agreement with Burma's military

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

in the early 1990s,

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and bro ...

is no longer openly on sale on the streets of Hpakant. Both addicts and drug dealers were rounded up, taken to the nearby Uru River, shot and dumped in the river. Concerns have been expressed regarding the encroachment on and destruction of the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

from

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

and

landslides Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environme ...

resulting from mining activities and consequent flooding. The Uru River has also been affected by the dumping of soil. There have been instances of locals being forced to leave their homes when upland areas were bulldozed by the big mining companies. The KIA however lost control of the jade mines once the ceasefire had been arranged, and firms from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

started to operate in the area after winning concessions from the government. More recently however the mining contracts went to the well known Burmese tycoon

Tay Za Tay Za (; my, တေဇ, ; also spelled Tayza or Teza; born 18 July 1964) is a Burmese business tycoon and the Chairman of Htoo Group of Companies, Myanmar. He is a close associate of the country's former head of state, Than Shwe. He is the firs ...

's Htoo Group and also to Myanmar Dagaung Co Ltd, a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

of the Hong Pang Group headed by

Wei Hsueh-kang Wei Hsueh-kang,, also known by #Pseudonyms, various other names, is a Chinese-born business tycoon and drug trafficker Fugitive, wanted by the United States and Thailand for illegally trafficking drugs in New York (state), New York and Golde ...

, a former

drug trafficker The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

and leader of the Wa

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irre ...

group UWSA turned entrepreneur after the cease-fire deal. Maran Brang Seng, former chairman of the

Kachin Independence Organisation The Kachin Independence Organisation ( my, ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ချုပ်; abbreviated KIO) is a Kachin political organisation in Myanmar (Burma), established on 5 February 1961. It has an armed win ...

(KIO) from 1976 until he died in 1994, was born in Hpakant in 1930.

Mining hazards

One thousand miners apparently drowned in 2000 when flood waters of the Uru River rushed into the underground mines, but the news was hushed up by the authorities according to the locals. An explosion at Hpakant Gyi mine on New Year's Eve 2008 killed 2 miners and injured 7. It is owned by another one of the ethnic ceasefire groups, the Pa-O National Army (PNA) headed by

Aung Kham Hti U Aung Kham Hti ( my, အောင်ခမ်းထီ) is a Burmese politician and former monk. He was the Chairman of the Pa-O National Organisation (PNO), which he re-organised in 1976. Its military wing, known as the Pa-O National Army was ...

A large company Jade Mine in Hpakant 2018 January

More than 30 (and up to 70) people are believed to have been killed in a massive landslide near Hpakant in early July 2009; official figures are not available. The flood waters swept away homes, blocked roads and cut communications. The disaster is being blamed on jade mining, which creates large deposits of debris that block heavy rain from reaching natural rivers and drainage, including the Uru river. About 100 jade mining companies operate in the Hpakant area. The Kachin Environmental Organization, based on the Sino-Burmese border, says that people living in the Hpakant area had appealed to the companies not to dump waste near the Uru River and to avoid environmental damage. The companies enjoy government backing, however, and local complaints are regularly ignored. Over 100 people were killed in a landslide in the 22 November 2015 Hpakant jade mine disaster. Most of those killed were people living near the waste heap, who made their living scavenging through waste soil looking for jade remnants. At least 15 jade-seekers in a closed mine were killed and 45 injured by a landslide in July 2018. Six people were killed in the April 2019 Hpakant jade mine collapse. More than 162 people were killed in a landslide in the 2 July 2020 Hpakant jade mine disaster. In 2021, a jade mine experienced a landslide, killing 20 and sweeping up to 100 people into a lake.

Notes

External links

Satellite map
''Maplandia.com''
Sources of Jadeite Jade
''Geohavens''

''Palagems.com''
Journal of the Geological Society, Sep 2004
Morley, C K

{{Kachin State Populated places in Kachin State Township capitals of Myanmar Populated places established in 1832