New Antimony Plant Goes Into Produc

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New Antimony Plant Goes Into Production in Myanmar

Xinhua, Rangoon 19 August 2000.An antimony concentrate plant in Myanmar's
southern Shan state, originally owned by the state and was privatized in last
November, went into production Friday after it was upgraded, official newspaper
The New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday.

Taken over by the Myanmar Mayflower Mining Company under the country's
privatization scheme, the antimony concentrate plant will produce 4,500 tons
of antimony ores annually.

The new plant was built beginning March this year and completed in May.

Myanmar's mining sector is growing by 19 percent every year. However its
contribution to the gross domestic product is rather small.

In Myanmar, over 11 percent of the mining sector is owned by the state and
over 86 percent by the private sector.

Besides engagement in the mining sector by local private entrepreneurs,
there is also foreign investment in the development of the sector.

According to official statistics, about a dozen foreign firms, including
those from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore Thailand
and the United States, are engaged in prospecting and exploration of mineral
resources as well as feasibility study in Myanmar since the country enacted the
New Mining Law in 1994.

The statistics also show that foreign investment in Myanmar's mining sector 
so far
amounted to 522.24 million U.S. dollars in 49 projects.