As the news of finding a pile of raw jades in the old jade mining site of Max Company near Kahtan village, Lone Khin village tract, Hpakant jade mining site in Kachin State, scavengers rushed to the scene to look for the raw jade.

“Previous days, those knew that there were raw jade secretly looked for the jade but the news broke out and it was spread on the social media. So, scavengers gathered there. It is in the old jade mining site. I don’t know why there are many raw jades there,” said a scavenger looking for the jade at the site.

Raw jades found in the old site are of various sizes and majority of them are of 300 viss (nearly 489 Kg) according to the scavengers.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has stopped jade mining site for 4 months in Lone Khin-Hpakant jade mining site. Scavengers who look for the remaining jade from the jade mining companies are in difficulty as the sites closed under the government instruction.