Recent research shows that industrial mining is affecting the Tibetan Plateau. As Chinese companies expand copper production, Tibetan concerns about water, land use, and environmental protection are worth revisiting, writes Tenzin Jigmey.*
In September 2014, over 1000 Tibetans gathered in a village east of Lhasa to protest mining, which they said was polluting their rivers and damaging their farming. (Xiang, 2010, pp. 4177-4184). The demonstration took place in Gyama (རྒྱ་མ་), a mountain valley historically used for agriculture, livestock, and local water. Gyama (རྒྱ་མ་), or Jiama as it is written in Chinese, is in central Tibet, about 60-70 km east of Lhasa in Meldro Gungkar County (མལ་གྲོ་གུང་དཀར་རྫོང།). It is well known for its large copper and gold mine and its cultural heritage. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that people in the area have been complaining of worsening river conditions, dwindling fish stocks, and crop damage. The rivers were once clean, and the area was famous for its scenic beauty, as recalled by a local resident. Now, serious waste-related issues continue to affect the waters. Gyama (རྒྱ་མ་) is also associated with environmental and mining safety issues. On the 29th of March 2013, there was a major landslide in the Gyama mining area which trapped 83 men. The disaster prompted many questions about mining safety and environmental management. (2013 Gyama Mine landslide, 2013).
Although the villagers’ accounts did not independently confirm the origin of each contaminant, they raised several pertinent questions: Who is monitoring the environmental impact of mining in Tibet? Who has access to the monitoring data? Who suffers when industrial development changes the land and water resources that underpin local communities’ livelihoods? 12 years on, these questions have become even more pertinent.
In January 2026, Zijin Mining announced the start of production at the second phase of its huge Julong, or Youlong, copper mine in the Meldro Gungkar area, located about 70 km from Lhasa. It is the second largest high-altitude copper mining operation in Tibet and part of a wider trend of mineral extraction expansion, with copper, gold, and other metals becoming increasingly important to China’s industrial economy. In 2026, several scientific papers were also published on the environmental impacts of mining across the Tibetan Plateau.
All of this raises a pertinent question: can Tibet extract economic value from its mineral wealth without incurring unacceptable environmental and social costs?
An Industrial Transformation in the Himalayas
Tibet has huge mineral deposits which have been formed over millions of years as a result of the geological activity associated with the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. China’s demand for copper has helped accelerate industrial development in mineral-rich regions. (Eheliyagoda et al., 2019, pp. 13812-13821) Of all the metals, copper is by far the most economically important. It’s used in electrical transmission systems, electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure, and a vast array of manufactured goods. The Youlong copper mine (owned by Zijin Mining) is a good example of that scale of transformation.
Zijin’s 2025 results indicate that the Julong mine in Tibet produced 193,820 tonnes of copper (approximately 194,000 tonnes). Phase II began production on the 23rd of January 2026 and is projected to increase total annual copper output to between 300,000 and 350,000 tonnes once fully commissioned. Annual ore mining and processing capacity is expected to rise from 45 million to 105 million tonnes. This represents a substantial increase in the volume of material extracted and processed in a cold, mountainous environment at high elevations.
Another major operation is the Gyama mine, officially called Jiama, located approximately 68 kilometers east-northeast of Lhasa. It is operated by Tibet Huatailong Mining Development, an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of China Gold International Resources. The company reported actual copper production of 70,883 tonnes in 2025, replacing the earlier forecast of more than 70,000 tonnes. Revenue from Jiama reached US$326.5 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from US$194.0 million in the same period of 2025, an increase of about 68.3%. These figures represent the mine’s revenue, including sales of other metals, rather than copper-only revenue or net profit.
Those figures show the substantial financial value being generated by the mining operations in Tibet. But they don’t address the equally important question of how much of that wealth actually goes to the Tibetan people. These Chinese state-owned and private companies make millions of dollars in profit from Tibet. We actually need a much more detailed picture of the local economy in terms of employment, wages, tax allocation, procurement, compensation, and long-term environmental liabilities (Ye et al. 2025).
What the New Science Reveals
In October 2026, Hong Fangzhou, He Guojin, Wang Guizhou, and Peng Yan published a paper in Ecological Indicators examining the environmental impacts of open-pit mining on the Tibetan Plateau.
The study’s findings were significant. Using satellite observations and ecological indicators, they studied 30 mines across four ecological zones from 2000 to 2020. It is a Chinese study, not a foreigner talking about it. The total mining footprint within the study area has increased by more than a factor of eight. The researchers also observed vegetation degradation, increased landscape fragmentation, and other measurable ecological changes that extend well beyond the confines of the actual mining operations.
In some areas, mining-induced ecological disturbances extended about 2-8 km from the mine sites. This doesn’t mean that every mine had the same effect. The degradation patterns they observed included sustained degradation, partial ecological recovery, and unstable conditions. The study doesn’t focus only on mines in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Its geographical scope is the entire Tibetan Plateau. Nevertheless, the study provides strong evidence that industrial mining can affect sensitive high-altitude ecosystems over large distances.
The study’s key scientific contribution is its ability to separate the mining-related signal from the broader environmental signal, driven by climate and natural vegetation dynamics. That distinction is, of course, very important in Tibet, where ecosystems are already under pressure from climate change and changing hydrology.
The key point is not that all vegetation change is attributable to mining companies, but that modern satellite technology can now detect where mining activities cause measurable vegetation change. Such evidence should inform environmental regulation, restoration planning, and public oversight mechanisms (Lu et al. 2023).
The Scientists Who Warned About Gyama Valley
The concerns of the Tibetan villagers around Gyama didn’t arise in a vacuum. As I was doing research on Tibet’s mining, I found that mining is getting deeper and Tibet is facing everyday environmental disasters, including earthquakes and floods. In 2010, environmental researchers Xiang Huang, Mika Sillanpää, Egil T. Gjessing, Sirpa Peräniemi, and Rolf D. Vogt published a paper in Science of the Total Environment, examining mining-related contamination in Gyama Valley. The researchers examined water, sediment, and mine materials collected between 2006 and 2008.
They found elevated levels of copper, lead, zinc, manganese, iron, and aluminium in various sections of the valley’s waterways. Crucially, they found that some of the Cu and Fe contamination had (Zhang et al. 2023) both a natural geological origin and a component that had been exacerbated by the mining activities. Their assessment pinpointed the most serious environmental risks in the stream’s upper and middle reaches. One of the most significant issues researchers have identified is the accumulation of metals in the sediments and mine waste as a long-term threat to downstream water users. However, the findings do not reflect Gyama Valley’s current water quality in 2026, as the samples are nearly 20 years old. However, these findings show that the environmental risks of mining in this area have been documented in the scientific literature over a long period.
Current monitoring systems have to determine whether the conditions identified in earlier research have improved, deteriorated, or changed. Without recent, independently accessible data, we can’t assess the current situation.
A New Scientific Investigation of Eastern Tibet’s Rivers
Another important study appeared on the 1st of October 2026 in Process Safety and Environmental Protection. Researchers led by Zhenjie Zhao investigated trace elements in stream sediments across Chamdo in eastern Tibet, a region connected to the headwaters of the Mekong, Salween and Yangtze river systems. The team examined 114 sediment samples, testing for 13 elements including copper, cadmium, chromium, nickel, mercury and lead.
The results showed that mercury concentrations averaged 3.86 times the regional soil background level. Chromium averaged 3.51 times background, nickel 2.58 times, and cadmium 2.34 times. Cadmium exceeded regional background concentrations in more than 90 percent of the sampled locations. These measurements matter because sediments can store trace elements and potentially release them when environmental conditions change. Copper extraction is particularly difficult because commercial deposits tend to have relatively low copper grades.
However, the researchers cautioned against oversimplifying the findings. They concluded that eastern Tibetan sediments were substantially contaminated and the ecological-risk index indicated moderate overall risk. It is reasonable to conclude that copper mining caused the observed contamination. Scientifically, effective environmental protection requires distinguishing between naturally occurring minerals and industrial pollution and understanding the impact both can have on downstream ecosystems. This is absolutely critical for communities whose livelihoods depend on the river, irrigation, and grazing land.
The Challenge of Mining Waste
At mines where copper makes up only a small proportion of the ore, operators must excavate and process large volumes of rock to obtain commercially viable material. This produces waste rock and tailings which may well require long-term containment.
In July 2026, researchers affiliated with Tibet University published a review on managing and restoring copper-mining tailings on the Tibet Plateau. The researchers explored approaches including recovering additional valuable metals, reusing certain tailings in construction materials, and rehabilitation involving plants, soil treatments, and microorganisms. The findings offer potential strategies to reduce waste and restore damaged environments. However, identifying a promising restoration technique is distinct from demonstrating its success at a specific Tibetan mine.
Another 2026 study in Ecological Indicators examined how high-altitude mining disturbances influence soil microbial communities. Such research highlights why restoration is more complicated than planting grass over disturbed land. Healthy ecosystems require functioning soils, suitable water conditions, stable microbial communities, and the capacity to sustain native vegetation over time. (Turley & Bell-Dereske, 2025). At high altitude, ecological recovery may be slow. (Zhang et al., 2026).
Mining companies and regulators therefore need to consider not only the years in which a mine is profitable but also the decades that may follow its closure. (After-effects of a closed copper mine: detailed analysis of environmental impacts in soil and plant samples, 2024)
Who Receives the Wealth — and Who Carries the Risk?
The growing importance of Tibetan copper must be understood in the context of the global transition toward electrification. Copper is essential for electric vehicles, power grids, wind turbines, and other technologies intended to support a lower-carbon economy. That creates an uncomfortable environmental dilemma. The communities of Gyama and the wider local Tibetan region do not benefit from the copper mining in the surrounding area; it is off-limits.
We know that technologies designed to reduce emissions still depend on extracting enormous quantities of minerals, often from ecologically vulnerable landscapes. No clear data or evidence shows that Chinese mining companies like Zijin and others have provided employment, investment, or public revenue to local Tibetans. These benefits are rightfully theirs; Tibetans have owned the land for centuries, and that should not be dismissed.
In Tibet, the question therefore goes beyond whether extraction creates wealth. It concerns whether people living near mining operations have access to environmental information, opportunities to influence decisions, fair economic participation, and effective remedies when harm occurs. Local communities, meanwhile, may depend on the same water and land systems that mining operations could disturb.
A full accounting would require far more transparent information on local employment, community investment, environmental monitoring, compensation, restoration funds, and grievance procedures (Wangmo, 2025). Production statistics alone cannot answer those questions. (Northey et al., 2013, pp. 118-128)
A Scientific and Moral Test
The 2026 research does not condemn mining wholesale or assure that industrial development is risk-free. Instead, it reveals a region experiencing substantial industrial change, where ecological impacts are measurable, environmental conditions vary across locations, and the sources of contamination require careful scientific investigation.
The evidence on hand also reveals a lack of public awareness. It is possible to determine precisely how many tonnes of copper a major mine produces, to calculate revenues, and to analyze the geology of the deposits in detail. It’s far harder to establish from consistently available independent public records how mining has affected the lives of nearby families, or how effectively it is meeting its long-term environmental commitments.
This is not an argument for disregarding scientific uncertainty, but for addressing it directly. Tibet requires regular, independently verified water testing; public environmental data; long-term ecological monitoring; transparent reporting of mining revenues and community benefits; and genuine participation by those whose land and way of life are in question. (Huang et al., 2010, pp. 4177-4184).
Scientific researchers should be able to study the impacts of mining properly, and local communities should be able to raise their environmental concerns without fear and get proper answers. The Tibetan Plateau is not just a reservoir of copper to be turned into industrial products. It’s a complex ecological system encompassing the headwaters of the major Asian rivers, high altitude habitats, agricultural and pastoral communities, and landscapes of immense cultural value.
The world needs copper. China has strong economic reasons to develop its mineral resources, and technological progress will continue to drive up demand for materials we extract from the ground. But the success of that venture shouldn’t be judged purely on the amount of copper extracted from the Tibetan mountains. It should also be measured by the state of the rivers that continue to flow, the landscapes that remain productive, the communities that share in the benefits, and the quality of the environmental protections that are left in place.
Copper can be extracted once. The impacts of extraction can last for generations.
If Tibet’s mineral wealth is to contribute to a more sustainable future, protecting its people and environment must be part of that future—not a cost to be calculated afterward.
References
1. Reuters. (February 22, 2024). Zijin Mining gains approval for Tibet copper mine expansion. Mining Weekly. https://www.miningweekly.com/article/zijin-mining-gains-approval-for-tibetcopper-mine-expansion-
2024-02-23/page%3A507
2. (March 27, 2024). China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd.: News Releases. China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd..
https://www.chinagoldintl.com/investors/news_releases/index.php?content_id=518
3. (September 28, 2014). Villagers Protest in Tibet’s Maldro Gongkar County Over Mine Pollution. Radio Free Asia. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/pollution09292014152011.html
4. Huang, X., Sillanp?, M., Gjessing, E. T., Per?niemi, S. & Vogt, R. D. (2010). Environmental impact of mining activities on the surface water quality in Tibet: Gyama valley. Science of the Total Environment 408(19), pp. 4177-4184.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2010.05.015
5. Hong, F., He, G., Wang, G. & Peng, Y. (2026). An integrated remote sensing framework reveals zone-specific ecological response trajectories to open-pit mining on the QinghaiTibet plateau. Ecological Indicators 191.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2026.115467
6. Zhao, Z., Wang, M., Wang, N., Han, Q., Yang, W., Sun, Q., Zhou, S. & Li, S. (2026). Trace element contamination in stream sediments of eastern Tibet: Geogenic and atmospheric controls on pollution and ecological risk in a remote high-altitude environment. Process Safety and Environmental Protection 219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2026.109540
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* Tenzin Jigmey is a Tibetan science educator and researcher who has taught chemistry and physics in the United States for more than a decade. He writes about science, environmental responsibility, and the future of Tibetan education.