New Democratic Army Kachin

The New Democratic Army – Kachin (NDA-K), later rebranded as the Kachin Border Guard Force, was an armed group in Kachin State, Myanmar that long controlled a major share of the country’s heavy rare earth mining and a key node in the global rare earth supply chain. Led for decades by Zahkung Ting Ying from its base in Kachin State Special Region 1 around Pangwa and Chipwi townships, the NDA-K operated over 100 ion-adsorption clay rare earth mines along the Myanmar-China border, leasing them to PRC-based companies in exchange for revenue. These deposits are rich in dysprosium and terbium, the heavy rare earths essential to permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and advanced defense systems, and fed Myanmar’s position as China’s dominant external heavy rare earth supplier. During the Kachin Independence Army’s October 2024 offensive, the NDA-K lost control of Chipwi and Pangwa, and its defeat at Kanpaikti left the organization largely dismantled.

Historical record (as of September 2026): the Kachin Independence Army’s offensive of September to November 2024 captured all of the Kachin Border Guard Force battalions and their headquarters, and the KIA abolished Kachin State Special Region 1. The group no longer holds any rare-earth mines.