South Korean company seeks investment in mineral exploration in Myanmar

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90863/6582924.html

February 01, 2009


A South Korean leading private company is seeking investment in mineral exploration in a major mine in Myanmar's northern Shan state, the local weekly Yangon Times reported in this week's issue.

Confirmed by the South Korean Embassy here, the Korean HC Company has coordinated with the Myanmar mining authorities to make investment in the Yadanar Theinki mining block on a mutually-beneficial basis and a field survey running for a period of up to one year will be conducted by Korean experts soon.

The South Korean company's intentional investment in the mining sector will be the first in Myanmar, the report said.

According to the journal's report, South Korea stands the fifth largest foreign investor in Myanmar injecting 50 million U.S. dollars in the oil and gas sector. Total Korean investment amounted to about 350 million dollars in the fiscal year 2007-08.



According to earlier official report, three S Korean companies-- Korea Resources Corporation (KRC), Daewoo International Corporation and Taihan Electric Wire joined the Canadian company of Ivanhoe in producing copper in three blocks of Sabetaung, Letpadaung and Kyisintaung near Monywa in Sagaing division under an agreement reached among them in January 2006.

The copper mining activities have been undertaken by the Canadian company since 1996 with 39,000 tons of copper producing annually.

Other firms engaged in mineral exploration in Myanmar include those from Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.

Official statistics show that foreign contracted investment in Myanmar's mining sector has amounted to about 534.19 million U.S. dollars as of the end of 2007 since the country opened to such investment in late 1988, accounting for 3.6 percent of 14.736 billion dollars' total foreign investment and standing as the sixth largest sector.

Source: Xinhua