Thailand's natural resources

Thailand has numerous natural resources that play an important role in its economy. The country is among the world leaders in exports of rice and production of tungsten, tin, and rubber. These resources secure income from worldwide markets, especially Asia, that demand those raw materials for manufacturing and nutritional purposes because of their quality and desired characteristics.

The Country

Thailand, located in southeastern Asia, borders four countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Malaysia. In 2023, Thailand had the twenty-first largest economy internationally in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) purchasing power parity, at $1.516 trillion. Its diverse terrain includes mountains, valleys, plains, and the Khorat Plateau. A peninsula extends south from southwestern Thailand. Several rivers flow through Thailand, most notably the Chao Phraya. Numerous islands are adjacent to Thailand’s coasts on the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. National parks provide sanctuaries for wildlife and plants. Thailand is divided administratively into seventy-six provinces.

Economically, Thailand underwent industrialization in the late twentieth century. Thai trade relies on ports hosting international shipping, particularly at Laem Chabang in Chon Buri Province. Exports of mineral and agricultural resources have bolstered the country’s economic growth. However, in the early twenty-first century political turmoil occasionally disrupted Thailand’s economy and exporting activities.

Tungsten

Thailand’s tungsten industry began in the 1940s, after deposits of that mineral were located in northern Thai provinces. Tungsten, which has the highest melting point for metals, provides industries a hard, heat-tolerant resource that has properties desired for electronics and tools. Tungsten is usually located in compounds with other elements. Wolframite and scheelite mineral deposits, common in Thailand’s mountainous terrain, provide the most Thai tungsten resources. Tungsten has been extracted from the Bilauktaung Range adjacent to Thailand’s southwestern border with Myanmar (Burma). During the 1960s, tungsten became a significant export resource for Thailand to acquire income from global markets, and Thailand attained a ranking of eighth internationally for quantity of tungsten produced.

By 1970, Thai miners had started extracting tungsten from wolframite deposits in southern Thailand’s Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. With approximately 6,800 metric tons of tungsten yearly, Thailand produced the third most tungsten in the world. In the early 1980s, Thailand’s tungsten production experienced low prices because of competition from China, which dominated the global tungsten market. As a result, most Thai tungsten mines were closed.

Near Chiang Mai in the north, geologists identified deposits at Mae Lama, Mae Chedi, and Doi Ngom. Investors Amanta Resources Ltd. and Mae Fah Mining Ltd. reinvigorated Thai tungsten mining activity in the twenty-first century when the Lanna Tungsten Project focused on those deposits’ resources. The Doi Mok, Samoeng, and Khao Soon deposits secured other mining interests. By 2002, Thailand was producing and exporting ample amounts of tungsten globally, ranking second in tungsten production and retaining that ranking for several years. In 2019, Thailand produced 160 metric tons of tungsten.

Rubber

Thailand’s tropical climate helps rubber trees thrive, especially in southern provinces on the peninsula. Rubber tree plantations enable Thailand to consistently stand as one of the world's leading producers and exporters of natural rubber; in 2023 it was ranked first. Malaysia and Indonesia usually produce more rubber than Thailand. Ten percent of Thai rubber is produced in Narathiwat and Pattani Provinces, with Surat Thani Province farmers producing the most. Tappers can extract 151 liters of latex sap daily per five hundred rubber trees tapped. Thai farmers can acquire approximately 1.6 metric tons of natural rubber per hectare of rubber trees in a year.

In 1991, Thailand rubber plantations first pursued production for international trade, expanding rubber sales to more foreign markets in the following years. By the early twenty-first century, 90 percent of Thailand’s rubber was exported. In 2023, Thai rubber farms produced 4.75 million metric tons of that resource, or about one-third of the world's production.

Occasionally, weather changes caused by El Niño have threatened successful rubber harvests and that industry’s success in Thailand. Synthetic rubber has competed against natural rubber for markets, impacting Thailand’s rubber industry, which has suffered declining prices and lost income. The Thai government has encouraged rubber farmers to continue cultivating rubber plantations during economic crises, such as the international recession in 2008, which affected automobile production, reducing demand for rubber tires. A synthetic rubber industry developed in the country as well.

Tin

Thailand has consistently produced significant amounts of tin, competing especially with neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, both of which have ample tin resources. Tin deposits stretch from Thailand’s peninsula, which has the largest reserves, to smaller amounts in northern provinces along the Myanmar (Burma) border. Thais have mined tin ore for several centuries. In addition to their location in land sites, tin ore deposits are often found in sea- and riverbeds. Islands near Phangnga Province have large tin deposits.

The retrieval of tin from seabed deposits requires specialized technology, such as dredges and suction devices on boats. Because of the expenses involved in extracting tin, mining companies that can afford the necessary equipment and employ experienced divers dominate offshore tin mining. In addition to Thai mining businesses, many foreign companies invest in extracting tin resources located close to Thailand’s coasts. By 1963, Thailand smelting and Refining Company Ltd. (THAISARCO) operated a tin smelter at Phuket.

During the 1980s, Thailand produced more than 27,000 tons of tin yearly in addition to unreported tin exports shipped clandestinely to markets in an attempt to avoid paying taxes and royalties to the government. During the following decades, tin exports consistently generated foreign income for Thailand, with only a small portion of that resource being used domestically. By 2000, approximately 70 percent of Thai tin and related materials, such as slag and tantalum, were the country’s leading global exports. However, production fluctuated considerably over the next decades. Thailand produced 291 metric tons of tin in 2010, a significant increase from the previous year. Production had risen to 700 metric tons by 2021.

Tantalum

The rare metal tantalum represents perhaps Thailand’s most controversial resource, with Thais mounting resistance to refinery methods seen as detrimental to environmental and economic quality. Tantalum is often used in computing, electronics, and aerospace technology. In 1985, the Thailand Tantalum Industry Corporation, with a desire to profit from this tin by-product, started construction of a $46 million tantalum refinery near houses and hotels on Phuket, a popular Thai island that generates income from tourism and fisheries. Many people in Phuket were already angry that tin mining and related industrial processes had detrimentally impacted their community, particularly in terms of the environment, which was crucial to attracting tourists and maintaining fish health (fishing provides many residents funds). They voiced their worries about disposal of hydrofluoric acid incorporated in Thailand Tantalum Industry Corporation’s procedures.

On June 1, 1986, fifty thousand citizens, representing the Committee to Coordinate Action Against Pollution, protested publicly and signed petitions, demanding the Thai government intervene to stop the refinery. Thai industry minister Chirayu Isarangkun na Ayutthaya traveled to Phuket on June 23 but left quickly, frightened by the enraged crowd, which burned the refinery and kept firefighters away. Responding to this action, the Thai government passed the National Environmental Quality Act to fund regulating industries, particularly those refining tantalum, and to remove industrial materials contaminating the environment. By August, 1992, the Thailand Tantalum Industry Corporation had built another tantalum refinery at Map Tha Phut, an industrial site, and stated hydrofluoric acid would not be released outside the factory. Achieving rates of 272,000 kilograms annually, that company often produced 40 percent of tantalum globally, the most in the world. Thailand hosted the World Tantalum Conference in 1992.

Rice

The Thai government started emphasizing jasmine rice in the 1980s in an attempt to surpass other exporting nations. Thai exports of jasmine rice accumulated $48 million dollars during 1988. Prices for Thai jasmine rice exports rose 44.4 percent within two decades, with yields increasing approximately 2.5 percent annually. Competitors attempting to grow and market jasmine rice have been unable to achieve the quality and quantity Thai rice producers have achieved. Along with India, Thailand’s greatest challengers for rice-exporting leadership include US long-grain rice and Pakistan’s basmati rice. Vietnam also poses regional competition for rice production.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Thailand exported more rice than any other country in the world (it later would compete with India for the top ranking annually). Prior to the 2008 economic crisis, Thailand exported more than 5.9 million metric tons of rice every year. Encouraged by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who promoted agriculture, Thai farmers cultivate this lucrative crop on large areas (28 percent of the country) of Thailand’s arable land. Thailand’s unique jasmine rice attracts foreign buyers willing to pay higher prices for this delicacy.

In 2004, Thailand produced 9.18 million metric tons of rice worth $2.73 billion. A 2005 drought lowered rice exports, with jasmine rice selling for about $400 per metric ton and pathumthani rice receiving $275 to $450 per metric ton. The global economic crisis in 2008 impacted Thailand’s rice exports despite food shortages increasing demand. Rice production in Nakhon Sawan Province decreased by 25 percent. In 2009, the Bangkok Post reported Thailand’s rice exports had decreased by 15.9 percent, with the country exporting only 666,688 metric tons of rice, worth $406 million to international markets. Payment of European Union tariffs, approximately $160 per metric ton, which many Asian countries are not required to pay, reduced Thailand’s profits. Exports recovered along with the general economic upturn into the 2010s. By 2020, Thailand had produced 18.89 million metric tons of rice, which was worth about $400 per metric ton.

Lignite

In the 1960s, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) began extracting lignite, a form of coal, from the Mae Moh Lignite Mine in the country’s northern Lampang Province as an energy resource to fuel the country’s biggest power plant. Geologists stated the coal deposits beneath the Mae Moh mine, which encompasses 32 square kilometers, total 630 million metric tons, placing it among the region’s biggest mines. This mine annually produced 2.5 million metric tons of lignite at its peak. Wanting to reduce Thailand’s reliance on imported oil, government officials planned additional development of Thai resources to generate energy. The Second Mae Moh Lignite Project resulted in more lignite extraction at that mine, attaining 4.5 million metric tons produced yearly. Thailand’s second lignite mine, in Krabi Province on Thailand’s peninsula, produced about 250,000 metric tons of lignite annually in the early twenty-first century.

Lignite mining in Thailand has caused problems. Approximately thirty thousand citizens were removed from lands in the Mae Moh valley in order to facilitate construction and operation of the Mae Moh mine and power plant. The mining process released pollutants, especially dust and sulfur dioxide emissions, into the environment, contaminating water and air sources and damaging people’s health. Agricultural resources, including soil and crops, were severely damaged.

In the early twenty-first century, the Mae Moh power plant provided Thailand with electricity but had the undesirable distinction of being Southeast Asia’s largest producer of sulfur gas. Villagers pursued litigation against EGAT. In March, 2009, a Chiang Mai court demanded that EGAT provide $7,000 per Thai whom lignite mining and power generation had harmed physically and economically. EGAT also was required to pay for villagers to move to land located at a safe distance from the power plant and to improve the mine’s environment by planting trees.

Natural Gas

Thailand has sought to develop such indigenous energy resources as natural gas because the country did not produce sufficient oil to meet domestic demand and was consistently among the top oil importers in Southeast Asia. During the 1970s, Thailand identified several Gulf of Thailand natural gas fields. The field near Sattahip contained 40 billion cubic meters of known natural gas reserves and possibly another 6.2 billion cubic meters. Another field, located 170 kilometers south of Sattahip, held 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas with potentially 127 billion cubic meters more. Other fields contributed to more than 300 billion cubic meters of Thai natural gas reserves.

In the early 1980s, the petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) and the Ministry of Industry oversaw pipeline construction near Map Tha Phut, extending south 425 kilometers in the gulf to a natural gas field. Other pipelines on land transported natural gas to thermal power plants and industries in Bangkok and Bang Pakong. The Erawan field provided natural gas through pipelines to several gas and power plant sites, including ones in Rayong, Samut Prakan Province, and the Khanom district in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. The Bongkot natural gas field became Thailand’s biggest source of that resource, attracting such international companies as Chevron. That company extracted natural gas from twenty-two Thai fields, producing 70 percent of that resource in Thailand. In 2008, the Gulf of Thailand’s Arthit and Block A-18 fields began contributing 20 million cubic meters of natural gas daily to boost yields. By 2022, Thailand had produced 30.797 billion cubic meters of natural gas and in 2021 had proven reserves of $138.243 billion cubic meters.

Other Resources

Thailand has numerous mineral resources with varying production levels and contributions to the global economy. Exports of Thai feldspar have ranked high internationally, often just behind Italy and Turkey. A zinc deposit located in Tak Province at Mae Sot was found to hold 3.2 million metric tons. Thailand also ranked in the top ten in the world for gypsum exports in the early 2000s. Finally, Thailand’s Ministry of Energy has encouraged companies to manufacture sufficient amounts of photovoltaic cells to export that commodity.

Fish comprise approximately 10 percent of Thailand’s exports, especially prawns and tuna. Thailand has regularly ranked third in deep-sea fishing yields among Asian countries. Thailand’s agricultural resources, ranging from crops—including sugarcane, coconuts, and pineapples—to forestry, have consistently earned Thailand global rankings near the top ten for exports. Thailand also exports cassava, sold as tapioca, globally.

Thailand has gained income from luxury resources, including silk. Although India and China dominate international silk trade, many consumers prefer Thai silk, produced from silkworms cultivated on mulberry groves in Isan. Thailand also exports orchids to global markets, with consistent consumer demand despite economic recessions supporting an export market that can bring in more than $100 billion yearly. Gemstones further contribute to Thailand’s export gains.

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Thailand Smelting and Refining Company Ltd,