The Downstream Effects of China's Rare Earth Mining

By Michael Sullivan,

Greg Dixon

Published July 18, 2025 at 4:34 PM EDT

Bundit Pantarakon stands along the Sai river in Mai Sai, where the Thai Army is building flood control barriers along the river that forms the border between Thailand and Myanmar.

China has nearly cornered the market in rare earth minerals, which are a necessary component to much of our technology today. But China sources some of those rare earths and other heavy metals from neighboring Myanmar. And the ramped up in production there is causing downstream environmental concerns in Thailand. We go to Thailand to understand the issue.

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Michael Sullivan

Michael Sullivan is NPR's Senior Asia Correspondent. He moved to Hanoi to open NPR's Southeast Asia Bureau in 2003. Before that, he spent six years as NPR's South Asia correspondent based in but seldom seen in New Delhi.

See stories by Michael Sullivan

Greg Dixon

See stories by Greg Dixon

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