A Chinese mining company will begin copper production at a controversial site in central Myanmar in May, a month after the new government led by the opposition party comes to power, a corporate spokesman said Friday. The large mine project operated by China’s Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd. Company and Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (UMEHL), a Myanmar an army-owned conglomerate, in the town of Letpadaung in Sagaing region has come under fire by local farmers who have long protested the company’s land takeovers in the area. “We will start copper production in May, a month after the new National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government takes power,” Dong Yunfei, Wanbao’s spokesman, told RFA’s Myanmar Service. Read more
