ABSTRACT
Burma has long been known as a promising mineral country, starting from the days when President Herbert Hoover helped develop the fabulous Bawdwin lead-zinc-silver mine, whose ores contained one-third metal. Burma has not had much economic contact with the outside world for decades. Burma’s metallic minerals have always been exported. But the reduced tonnage produced and exported does not earn much foreign exchange. As an independent country in the post-World War II period, Burma exported the same minerals but at less than one-fifth the historic peak levels. Without much domestic funds and international investments, Burma has had to accept technical aid and foreign grants in the form of small projects. The Bawdwin enterprise near the Burma Road is burdened with old equipment and is reportedly operating at a loss. Burma’s only important railroad is from an area near the Bawdwin enterprise to Rangoon, but this railroad has been disrupted from time to time.
