In the 1930s, the Mawchi Mine was the world's most important source of tungsten.
Mawchi contained the world's largest granite-hosted tin-tungsten vein system before World War II.
From 1930 to 1940, ore production amounted to 2,000 to 6,000 tonnes annually, which amounted to 60% of Myanmar's total production, and one-third of the world's tungsten.
Mawchi is located in the Western Granite Province, composed of Cretaceous to Eocene I-type granites and S-type granites, dominated by ilmenite-series rocks of granodioritic and syenogranitic composition.
[1][2] On January 28 in the Myanmar Civil War, the town was seized by the KNDF.