"Burma?s "hard rock” part of the mineral industry showed only moderate improvement during 1971. Production from the Bawdwin mine near Lashio and the Chinese border increased, but the grade of the ore continued to decline. Production of tin and tungsten recorded a substantial increase in 1971, which indicated that the overall rehabilitation program was making significant progress, although output from the Mawchi tin-tungsten mine achieved only modest gains. In February a cooperative agreement was signed with the West German Government regarding general exploration for mineral resources in Burma. An untied loan of $10 million 2 was negotiated with Japan to finance exploratory drilling for oil in the Gulf of Martaban. The drilling, scheduled to begin early in 1972, will be conducted by a U.S. contractor, which will be the first foreign firm to engage in drilling operations in Burma since nationalization of the oil industry in 1963. A loan was also received from the Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) to help finance the purchase of six more oil drilling rigs. The fertilizer plant being constructed by the West Germans to utilize local natural gas to make urea was nearing completion at year end. The mineral industry of Burma has become very much a government business. Various government corporations are assigned to manage the different mining sectors. In fiscal 1970-71,3 the national budget showed the following estimated capital expenditures: Myanma Oil Corp. (MOC), $14.6 million; Myanma Bawdwin Corp. (MBC), $2.3 million; and Mineral Development Corp. (MDC), $4.6 million..."