TY  - GEN
AV  - public
Y1  - 2023///
CY  - London, UK
TI  - Data Study Group Final Report: Global Witness - Identifying Unregulated Mining Sites using Historical Satellite Data
EP  - 63
UR  - https://www.turing.ac.uk/news/publications/data-study-group-final-report-global-witness-identifying-unregulated-mining-sites
ID  - discovery10196008
N2  - Rare earth metals are a critical component in the manufacturing process of many electric vehicles, wind turbines, and consumer electronics such as mobile phones. Demand for rare earth metals has increased rapidly in the past twenty years, and is expected to increase five-fold by 2040.

China has historically dominated the global supply of rare earth elements, and is the largest producer of the manufactured products that require them.

However, many of China?s domestic mines have been shut down due to concerns over pollution, which raises the question: Where does China obtain its supply of rare earth elements?

Reported quantities of Chinese imports of rare earth minerals from Myanmar have increased substantially in recent years; In 2014, Myanmar exported just $1.5m of rare earths to China. By 2021, this sum had reached $740m. However, a six month investigation by Global Witness found a significant amount of illicit production and trade of these minerals in rebel-held areas along Myanmar?s north-eastern border with China.
N1  - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
PB  - The Alan Turing Institute
A1  - Data Study Group Team
A1  - Acar, Asli
A1  - Ballinger, Ollie
A1  - Cheongkam Jeong, Nina
A1  - Gayther, Ben
A1  - Hamelijnck, Ollie
A1  - Mellor, Lucy
A1  - Miles, Gabriella
A1  - Sheppard, Joanne
A1  - Stoffel, Martin
ER  -