For over 40 years the U.S. Bureau of Mines has issued an annual summary of mining activity in Burma which is now available on-line. These useful reports include information about surveying, mapping, exploration, concession grants, mineral exports and imports and the operations of major mining companies, as well as a valuable five year tonnage table for all major mineral products. The reports cover a wide range of mine products including base metals, precious metals, non-metallic minerals and petroleum. Cement and steel products are also covered. The focus of these reports is on large-scale mining operations and they tend to leave out of consideration the activities of smaller national companies and the mining ?rushes? that occur from time to time, attracting the participation of thousands from around the country. There is little emphasis on the environmental concerns associated with mining activities in Burma. Burmese government reports provide the major sources for the information provided in these reports, but, particularly in recent years, they have also included information from the section on Burma (Myanmar) in the Mining Annual Review produced by the Journal of Mining. The reports are usually a year out-of-date by the time are made available on-line. This important document features how Burma expanded its mining industry for both trading and domestic use. The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC),which is now known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), enacted the Myanmar Mining Law replacing all the existing regulations - The Upper Myanmar Ruby Regulation of 1887, the Mines acts of 1923, and the Union of Myanmar Mines and Mineral Acts of 1961. According to an estimate by the Ministry of Mines, the total work force in the mining sector was about 83,000 of which about 21, 000 were in metallic mining. The total output of the mining sector, in million capacity was rated at 40,000 metric tons per year (mt/a), compared with the designed capacity of 65,000 mt/a. Copper ore was mined from an open pit mine at Sabetaung deposit in the western bank of Chindwin River, about 11 km west of Monywa in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Division. According to the No.1 Mining Enterprise, the metal content of copper and gold in copper concentrate was about 19.2% and 1.5 grams per metric ton (g/mt), respectively. Most exports of copper concentrate went to Japan in 1994. According to Japanese trade statistics, Japan imported from Burma 24,768 metric tons (mt) of copper concentrate, valued at $6.2 million in 1994.