According to foreign media reports, two new medium-to-large rare earth mines have been discovered in eastern Shan State, Myanmar, protected and operated by the United Wa State Army (UWSA, hereinafter referred to as the UWSA). Experts have pointed out that this may be the first large-scale concentrated rare earth mining area to form outside of northern Kachin State in Myanmar in recent years. One of the mine sites is only about 30 kilometers from the Thai-Myanmar border. Commercial satellite imagery shows that in April 2023, a circular clearing appeared in the forested hills of the area. In February 2025, shortly after a major ore belt in Kachin State was occupied by another armed group, a dozen leaching ponds emerged near the new mining area. The other mine site is 6 kilometers away from the aforementioned site, located on the other side of the Guo River, a right-bank tributary of the Mekong River. Satellite imagery from May 2024 shows cleared areas in the forested region near this site, and less than a year later, 20 leaching ponds had been constructed in the area.