Tibetans Forcibly Removed to Make way for Mining Development

 

Chinese government in Lhasa forcefully removed Tibetan families from their ancestor homes in Lhundup (Ch: Lhunzhub) county of Lhasa municipality, in so called Tibetan Autonomous Region to make way for an extensive mining in the region.

Pile of ore deposits at the mining site in Lhundup County

Several nomadic families of Dhun viilage in Khartse Township of the Lhundup County have been forced to move out of their ancestral homes to make way for extensive mining on their grassland. The mining is being owned and operated by Chinese and local Tibetans have little idea about the type of mineral being extracted. Some speculate the extraction of “white gold”. 

According to some studies, this region lies in a north-dipping thrust fault and has deposits of Zinc (Zn), Lead (Pb), Copper (Cu) and Gold (Ag) formed in stratiform orebody. A major mining operation is being carried out near Laobadui or Leqingla (Coordinates: 30.006944°N, 91.065278°E) 

Mining site in Lhundup County, TAR

\The mining is causing socio-cultural and environmental impacts. Local Tibetans have witnessed dumping of factory waste in the rivers and destruction of grassland resulting into death of live stocks and decline of farm yield since 2006 when the mining operation started. The local Tibetans reportedly made repeated appeals to the local authorities but to no avail. Instead the authority deemed their efforts as politically motivated and ignored the real issues. Under such circumstances, Tibetans are left with almost no scope to express their grievances.