Highlights

• China currently controls 57% of rare earth imports from Myanmar, primarily from Kachin's mineral-rich regions.
• India's attempts to procure rare earth samples from the Kachin Independence Army have stalled due to military counteroffensives.
• Critical infrastructure like cross-border railways remains a blueprint, highlighting the gap between mineral ambitions and operational reality.

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India’s ambitions to diversify away from Chinese-controlled rare earths just hit a wall in Myanmar. A detailed report by The Federal (Sept 20, 2025) outlines how New Delhi’s outreach to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to procure heavy rare earth samples has stalled amid Myanmar’s military counteroffensives in Kachin state.

What Holds Up Under the Harsh Light

Some parts of the story are ironclad, impossible to dispute. China’s grip on Myanmar’s rare earths isn’t speculation—it’s arithmetic. Nearly 57 percent of Beijing’s rare earth imports flow out of Myanmar, much of it drawn from Kachin’s dysprosium- and terbium-rich hills. These are the metals that give teeth to the modern age—permanent magnets for EVs, wind turbines, and missiles.

India’s Ministry of Mines has indeed stirred, dispatching state-owned Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL) and Midwest Advanced Materials Pvt Ltd to gauge what lies beneath Kachin’s soil. And the infrastructure chess moves are real: the Bairabi–Sairang railway in Mizoram and the Jiribam–Imphal link in Manipur aren’t just rail lines—they’re arteries India hopes will one day pump minerals from Myanmar’s embattled heart into its own industrial bloodstream.

Where the Narrative Slips Into Mirage

But then the reporting veers into terrain less solid, more mirage than mountain. The so-called “love-hate” between the Kachin Independence Army and China is less a lovers’ quarrel than a cold transaction—Beijing bankrolls, KIA tolerates. To suggest that KIA is ready to swing its bulk exports to India is more hopeful fiction than geopolitical fact.

Likewise, framing Delhi’s outreach to a non-state militia as a shocking break from tradition forgets India’s own history: the informal, shadow economies of the northeast have long blurred the line between state policy and pragmatic backdoor dealing.

And those railways? They may look bold on paper, but no steel tracks yet pierce Kachin’s mineral belts. For now, they remain blueprints and press releases, not conduits of ore.

The Rare Earths That Really Matter

Strip away the theater and one truth remains: Kachin’s rare earths are simply too precious for India to ignore. China knows this, and every delay on India’s part tightens Beijing’s chokehold on dysprosium and terbium—the irreplaceable metals of the green and digital revolutions.

Investors and strategists should read the piece not as a roadmap but as a cautionary tale. India’s ambitions are embryonic, Myanmar is still a warzone, and the logistical arteries required to move heavy rare earths remain years—if not decades—away. The scramble is real, but so is the distance between aspiration and reality.

Citation: Samir K Purkayastha, The Federal, “Myanmar ground reality hits India’s plans to tap rare earth minerals (opens in a new tab),” September 20, 2025.

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