Dreams of Myanmar's 'unwashed' jade miners buried by disaster | Malay Mail

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HPAKANT, July 5 — Five Yay Ma Hsay — or “unwashed” as the jade miners of northern Myanmar are known — arrived early Thursday at the pit to scrape out a living on a scraggy hillside, lured by the prospect of finding a stone that could transform their lives. But only three would return, the...

People stand in front of a jade mine following a landslide in Hpakant, Kachin State City, Myanmar July 4, 2020. — Reuters pic

Sai Ko, 22, survived the spin-dryer of rock and heavy sludge by clinging to the corpse of a fellow miner, and battling to land. But for the poor migrants from across Myanmar who travel hundreds of miles to prospect in Hpakant, big paydays are few and far between. Yet there are thousands more ready to take his place — illegal workers who buy their way into the vast open-cast mines after the company diggers leave — to scour for scraps of the precious stone left behind.He says his five-strong team arrived half an hour early to grab the best spot and avoid jostling with hundreds of others.“We hadn't even started digging when we were hit by the wall of water.

Instead, he will work the waste piles dumped on top of the hills by mining companies -- a scree of stones which can yield fragments of jade to the Yay Ma Hsay, which translates as 'unwashed' in Burmese but is used to group the informal miners.“One day, if I get quality stone I will be a Lawpan ... I want to live in a house in a compound. I'm not going to give up.”

 

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