History lives at old Myanmar mine

The Marmion headframe at Myanmar Metals' Bawdwin mine

• EXCLUSIVE

  PAUL GARVEY

  RESOURCES REPORTER

  @PDGarvey

  
• 12:00AM FEBRUARY 16, 2019
• NO COMMENTS

As an experience, sending down a few balls on Herbert Hoover’s old personal bowling alley is pretty special. Doing so in steelcap boots at a remote mine site in Myanmar’s far north feels even more extraordinary.

The bowling alley is but one of many surprises waiting at the old Bawdwin mine in northern Myanmar, the flagship project of ASX-listed Myanmar Metals. Getting to Bawdwin involves a three-hour journey along a narrow single-lane road winding its way up the mountains, through blind turn after blind turn, past water buffalo, bamboo forests and terraces of rice paddies before arriving at a mine that is seemingly frozen in time.

The mine, its infrastructure, and the surrounding town appear effectively untouched in the century since the mining engineer and then-future US president Hoover oversaw its construction.

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Almost everything is still there, just as it was back in Hoover’s day, with the exception of two processing plants in the nearby town of Namtu which were destroyed by the English and Japanese during WWII.

Parts of Bawdwin look remarkably like the set of a Wild West film, with its wooden buildings and rusted old railway. Were it not for the group of saffron-robed monks out the front, the town’s old post office — still operational today — would look as if a stagecoach should arrive at any minute.

The surrounding town, including Hoover’s freshly restored cottage, has the look and feel of a European alpine village.

Wandering through the remarkably well-preserved buildings, it’s impossible not to picture the lives of the colonialists who made Bawdwin a jewel in the crown of the British Empire.

There’s the old cinema and outdoor stage in the centre of Bawdwin town. Near the old manager’s house are the billiards hall, an old bar that is all wood panelling and brass rails and where you can practically taste the gin and tonics, and that old bowling alley, complete with the original pins and balls.

Anglican and Catholic churches built during that era are sparsely attended these days by the 3000 people who still live near the mine, but they have been respectfully cared for and preserved.

Flat ground is exceptionally rare around the hills of Bawdwin, but the British still managed to find room for a full-size soccer field right next to the town’s old swimming pool — one of the few pieces of colonial-era infrastructure that has since fallen into disrepair.

But it is the mining infrastructure that is most impressive.

The mine’s old Marmion headframe still lowers workers underground each day, helped by the remarkably well preserved set of winders.

More than a century after they were first built, those winders are perfectly preserved. The completely intact equipment is a tribute to the former might of British manufacturing. The carefully polished brass nameplates on each piece of equipment document industrial names of bygone days, such as the English Electric Co Ltd of London and Kerr, Stuart & Co of Stoke.

The equipment has been oiled, greased, dusted and polished every day by the workers who have continued to tend to the project each day for the decades the mine has laid idle.

It is a miracle that the equipment should survive, given the poverty, political upheaval and unrest that has endured across Myanmar in recent decades. The remarkable preservation of these industrial antiques also extends to the mine’s old tipplers, which are still capable of turning each rail wagon upside down, and the narrow gauge rail network that connects Bawdwin to Namtu.

The rail runs through the Hoover-built Tiger tunnel, built in 1914. The tunnel is named after a tiger that was spotted in the area while the tunnel was under construction — Hoover’s diary from the time records how the future president himself set out with his rifle in hunt of the tiger, which was eventually shot and killed by one of his workers.

At the end of the line in Namtu sits both the old colonial-built golf course and Bawdwin’s remarkable collection of narrow-gauge trains, which have attracted train enthusiasts from around the world. None are more captivating than the impeccable number 13 steam engine, built back in 1914 and still capable of running to this day. Just add coal and she is away — even her steam whistle still works.

Back at Bawdwin, there is a serendipitous connection between the mine’s past and its future under the stewardship of ASX-listed Myanmar Metals. In the early days, one homesick Australian engineer smuggled in some gum nuts from back home. Now, the hillsides leading into Bawdwin are covered by towering, thriving Australian eucalyptus trees.