Workers exiting a mine shaft, Bawsaing, Myanmar
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Workers exiting a mine shaft, Bawsaing, Myanmar

by Ian Watkinson

Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc (Pb-Zn) deposits in the Bawsaing region of eastern Myanmar have been worked for centuries. The Paleozoic limestones and dolomites of the region are folded and host galena-bearing veins, forming a Mississippi Valley Type ore deposit. Here, at the mouth of an adit through the deposit on a steep hillside, visitors to the mine make their way out into the bright sun of a November afternoon in Myanmar.