A Thai coal mining company, Saraburi, a subsidiary of Ital-Thai that was granted a 30 year coal concession in Shan State East’s Mongkok sub-township, Monghsat township, 70km north of Thailand’s Chiangrai border, told a meeting held in Chiangrai province yesterday that it was considering passing on its coal products to China if people in Thailand continued opposing the project, according to Thailand’s Manager Online.
Thai officials together with the company held the meeting on at Mae Sai’s custom department building over the company’s plan to transport coal shipments from the Mongkok mine through conflict zones inside Shan State and through unaffected areas in northern Thailand to the city of Saraburi in central Thailand where it will be used as fuel in cement factories.
The Burma Army had made a condition for Saraburi to construct a new route across the border despite the existence of a shorter 70-80 km route inside Burma’s Tachilek to Thailand’s Maesai, in exchange for the coal concession.
Due to that proposed road plan, people from both sides are concerned that the coal shipment could destroy and affect local village life along the proposed route as well as endangering the environment and their security.
In addition, people in Thailand are also worried that the road project could promote drug trafficking and damage public roads as well. This has led to their protests against the project since 2009 and calling upon the company to use other routes.
“If we are not allowed to transport our coal through the said route, there are only two alternatives for us to choose. One is to use the existing Mongkok-Tachilek-Mae Sai road,” said Pakorn Ruamthong, the company representative.
“But if people in Maesai do not allow us to use this way, we will be forced to hand over our products to China. But to do so, we still have to ask Naypitaw for its consent.”
The road is proposed to be built across Maejok on the Burmese side of the border to Thailand’s Hmong Kaolang village, Mae Fa Luang district. It will be around 68 km inside Burma and 77 km inside Thailand until it connects with the national highway at Pasang, between Maesai and Chiangrai. The existing Mongkok-Tachilek-Mae Sai road is 70-80 kilometers long.
The proposed road would be able to transport between 2,000-5,000 tons of coal per day. The deposit in Mongkok boasts at least 150 million tons of raw coal, one third found to be Grade A. It would take 40 years long to deplete the fields even with 270 ten wheelers working each day to transport, according to an official from the company. The total value is estimated at 270,000 million baht (US $ 9 billion).
If the company still wants to work on the project, it should submit a proposal to National Security Council of Thailand (NSC), Arnat Wittayakul, Chiangrai’s assistant governor, who presided over the meeting suggested.
However, the construction of its project, which has destroyed paddy fields, farms and lands of local villagers in Shan State, is ongoing since mid April to date, according to local sources.
