Tip Kamlue, 59, a Shan farmer in Tha Ton sub-district, works in her fields on the banks of the Kok River, where she irrigates her crops with groundwater instead of the Kok’s water, amid increased rare earth and gold mining at the river’s source in Myanmar, where unregulated operations may release toxic chemicals, according to the Stimson Center report, in Chiang Mai province, north of Thailand, November 11, 2025. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa