Using Google Earth to Monitor Mining in Tibet 3: Example of Gyama

Mining is one of the biggest topics of concern today. In the past, China could not exploit Tibet's rich mineral resources on a large scale due to lack of technology, capital and transportation facilities. Mining in Tibet was simply too expensive for China. China also lacked the political confidence to open Tibet to Western mining companies. Today, however, things have changed. With a railway line connecting the heart of Tibet, Lhasa, with the major Chinese cities all the way to Beijing, transportation of materials is cheap and easy. China has also become a global economic power and its confidence in dealing with overt Tibetan opposition is at a high. Today it is actively seeking collaboration with, or rather more accurately, it is seeking investment from Western companies to extract Tibet's gold, copper and other precious minerals. China now wants to voraciously exploit the mineral resources of Tibet and other areas such as Xinjiang to meet its skyrocketing domestic demands. China needs to create an independent resource base and Tibet is key in achieving that goal.

Big Western mining companies such as Rio Tinto have so far refrained from investing in Tibet, as a politically sensitive region. Only smaller companies willing to take the risk for potentially big profits have entered Tibet. However, their experiences have been jinxed so far. Vancouver based Continental Minerals, for example, faced the wrath of local people when two of their local employees were taken hostage and their jeep overturned and infrastructure destroyed in a protest a few years ago. Then they faced heavy criticism from Tibetan rights groups such as Students for a Free Tibet and Canada Tibet Committee. This was followed by unpleasant experiences working with their Chinese counterparts, finally being acquired at a large discount by the Gansu based Jinchuan Group Ltd last year.

In this blog post, I will share Google Earth images of the Gyama mine, which is located in Medrogungkar county near Lhasa. Tibetan Plateau blog has a post about Gyama and other mines under the title of Canada and Crimes Against the Tibetan People. For information about the mine, see a recent Vancouver Media Co-op article and Woser's article in Chinese or an English translation by High Peaks Pure Earth. For those interested in technical scientific studies about the impact of the Gyama mine on local water system, see here. Tibetan readers can see this report about about the poisoning of local waters and clashes between locals and miners.


The confluence of two rivers that form the Gyama Valley:




The main processing plant located right near the confluence and on traditional farming land. Google Earth on Tibet tip: if you find a blue colored roof, zoom in to often find something of interest:




Scarred mountains, evidence of intense drilling, which will become open pit mines of Gyama very soon:



Initial signs of open pit mine with trucks on mountain top. Notice the image was taken in November 2009:



Remember the clashes between locals and miners over water? Here's some evidence. Water being piped from river source right through the middle of people's fields:




Further upstream on the other tributary of Gyama River, you see this mine site. One of the great tools you can use in Google Earth is a time machine you can drag to see how the site looked at different times. Notice this image below was shot on December 17 2007, when the tailings pond is mostly empty and the open pit mine is not as deep:




Fast forward the image to the latest version of Nov 4 2009, and you can see the tailings pond filled and the mine dug much deeper:




Continue to go further upstream, and you will find this suspicious site. Are those soldiers standing together on the NNE of the blue structure? You can also see houses, vehicles and construction machinery:



Go further upstream and you will find this frightening sight. Huge areas covering several mountains have been drilled to prospect minerals here. I hope I am wrong but this is most likely the Qulong Copper Deposit, which was reported by the China Geological Survey in 2009 to contain at least 9 million tonnes of copper, plus molybdenum and silver. The Gyama mine, by comparison, has proven reserves of 2.2 million tonnes of copper. According to the International Mining, February 2010 issue (page 40): "In copper, the most famous deposit is Qulong, according to Chen Renyi and Xue Yingxi of the China Geological Survey. They say “With proved reserves of nearly 9 Mt, Qulong will soon be the largest copper deposit in China, and the perspective reserves are over 14-18 Mt.”"



If you follow the zig zag roads of this mine site to the West, it will curiously end near these two lakes, one of which is dry. Were they thinking of using these two remote lakes (5190 meters) as dumping sites for wastes?



These images are examples. The Tibetan Plateau is littered with mine sites, especially smaller sites. I will refrain from inundating this post with GE images. Look for these yourselves and please share information.

This blog post is the third in a series to advocate the use of Google Earth to monitor development projects inside Tibet.

You can easily locate the sites shown above on Google Earth by tracking the coordinates (latitude and longitude) shown at the bottom of the images.
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Village headman's home attacked

Following is translation of a Tibetan language blog entry about "An incident near Kokonor Lake (News)" that was posted on January 22, 2009. Lake Kokonor is called མཚོ་སྔོན་ (Tso Ngon) in Tibetan. Tso Ngon means Blue Lake. The Chinese also has the same name in their language, which is Qinghai for Blue Lake. Lake Kokonor is the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau (and in China). Reports indicate that the lake is shrinking due to climate warming, desertification and human encroachment.

[Photo courtesy of Wikipedia]

"An incident near Kokonor Lake (news)"
by Samten la



In recent years, an increasing number of fishermen around Amdo's Lake Kokonor have been catching a lot of fish and occupying pastures around the lake which belong to the region's nomads. So recently, the headman of Mogra village told the fishermen that they cannot fish here anymore and must immediately go away from the region. That night around seven to eight men, carrying different weapons with their faces covered in black cloth, came to the headman's house. Luckily the headman was not home that night. But the masked men severely assaulted the whole family and damaged their motorcycle and car and ran away. Next day on hearing the news, more than a thousand local people gathered and called for the fishing activity to stop immediately and asked them to go back. When a fight was about to break, the police came and arrested the suspects who came to kill the headman and the local nomads went home.

[end]
Translated by Yungdung Nyima of www.ecotibet.org
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Tibetan perspectives on the significance of mountains and lakes

[Photo: Tashi Tsering]

By Tenzin Choezin, Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, New York
Translated by Tenzin Bhuchung, UC Berkeley Rotary Peace Scholar
Original source: Trin-Gyi-Pho-Nya [སྤྲིན་གྱི་ཕོ་ཉ་], Tibet Justice Center, Vol. 1, Issue 3, January 2004.

Tibetans’ traditions and their way of life are intimately linked to the landscape: its spectacular high mountains and pristine lakes. The significance of landscape finds meaning and expression both in pre-Buddhist Bon tradition as well as in Tibetan Buddhist culture.

According to the indigenous Bon tradition, Tibetans believe that mountains, lakes, ponds, springs and river sources are dwelling places of the protector gods of Tibet and most of these sites are named, often in a modified version, after the name of a particular deity believed to be dwelling there. Furthermore, all mountains and lakes have at least one amazing legend surrounding them. The sky-touching mountains are believed to be stairways to heaven (ལྷ་ཡུལ་/Lha-yul) and the crystal clear lakes as gateways to the underworld realm of the Nagas (ཀླུ་ཡུལ་/Lu-yul).

From a Tibetan Buddhist interpretation, mountains like the Jomolangma (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ་/Everest), Ghung-gyal, Amnye Machen and many other high mountains of Tibet are regarded as abodes of the gods and the twelve female guardian deities that were believed to be present at the formation of the Tibetan landscape and civilization. Mountains such as Ghang Rinpoche (གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་/Mount Kailash), Mount Tsari Tsagong (ཙ་རི་) and Mount Khawa Karpo (ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོ་) are regarded as heavenly dwelling places of various trans-worldly deities.

Even lakes such as Mapham Yutso (མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ་/Lake Manasarovar), Namtso Chukmo (གནམ་མཚོ་ཕྱུག་མོ་), Yamdrok Yutso (ཡར་འབྲོག་གཡུ་མཚོ་/Turquoise Lake), Trishor Gyalmo (མཚོ་སྔོན་ཁྲི་ཤོར་རྒྱལ་མོ་/Kokonor Lake) and others are widely revered as abodes various female deities such as Dorji Phagmo (རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ་/Vajra Yogini). There are also lakes that Tibetans believe reveal prophetic visions in them such as Lhamo Lhatso (ལྷ་མོ་བླ་མཚོ་), Thod-lung Tsehu (སྟོད་ལུང་མཚོའུ་), O’lkha Tsehu (འོལ་ཀ་མཚོའུ་), and Tsari Yutso (ཙ་རི་གཡུ་མཚོ་). These lakes are revered as miraculous sources of protection and are believed to have helped in identifying the next incarnation of Lamas (བླ་མ་/spiritual teachers) including the current Dalai Lama.



Three lakes in eastern Tibet—Kyaring (སྐྱ་རིང་), Ngoring (སྔོ་རིང་) and Doring (དོ་རིང་) —are surrounded by high mountain ranges with one mountain rising distinctively higher. Tibetans regard this area as the dwelling place (བླ་གནས་) of King Ling Gesar (གླིང་གེ་སར་རྒྱལ་པོ་), and have named the highest mountain after the legendary King. It is a common practice for local Tibetans to offer prayers in these sacred sites. There are also numerous natural fountains and hot springs that Tibetans believe are blessed by the Medicine. Tibetans believe that when they drink or bathe in them, many chronic diseases can be cured. Then there are lakes such as Nagphak Tso and O’tso that serve as winter migration places for rare and endangered species of birds like the black-necked crane (ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་སྐེ་ནག་).

In particular, Ghang Rinpoche (གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་/Mount Kailash) and the River Ganga (ཆུ་མོ་གངྒ་) are sacred places of worship not only for Tibetans but also for many in India and Nepal. Many of Tibet’s high Lamas (Dharma teachers) have built monasteries and meditation houses near these sacred sites, while others have spent their lives there in solitary contemplation. Thus these places are considered doubly blessed. Animals dwelling in these sacred places are regarded as divine manifestations. Respect for the lives of these animals is such that not even a small plant is cut, let alone the animals killed. Instead, Tibetans customarily pile white pebbles into a heap in such places to symbolize the enhancement of their pure motivations. Instead of fishing, Tibetans throw precious objects into the lakes as offerings to the deities believed to be residing in them.

Even today, the Tibetan people deeply believe in the world of gods (ལྷ་)and demons (འདྲེ་). In all their worldly activities, they evoke gods and spirits for their accomplishment. Such traditional practices and belief systems associated with local ecosystems are an inseparable part of Tibetan culture and way of life.
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