I have a suspicion that CCP/PLA thugs are planning to operate secret underground mines on the Indian side of the LAC in Galwan, Pangong Tso finger area and elsewhere. The Himalayas are a great source of rare earth elements, because they were formed by two tectonic plates pushing against each other. China is the largest source of these rare earths which are needed in all modern electronics. China wants to keep its monopoly because it blackmails other countries by controlling the export supply of these rare earth elements. It also forces international electronics companies to remain in China by being the largest source of these elements and limiting export of them. If India were to start mining rare earth elements in the Himalayas, it has the potential to break the Chinese hold on China's rare earth monopoly and consumer electronics manufacturing.
This kind of underground mining requires water, and Ladakh is a high altitude desert with water at only certain areas. The Chinese have taken positions everywhere next to these areas. I first suspected the Chinese intention of underground mining in Ladakh on Indian side of LAC when I saw the tunnels they were digging at finger 8, and how these tunnels were wide enough to accomodate trucks carrying the mined ores. Here is a report and a video about this (note that these were already there by end of 2019):
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This video shows a picture of the tunnel at finger 8 at end of 2019 (starting from 1:47 in the video) :
Such underground rare earth mining usually requires a water reservoir. It is possible that when the Galwan River flow seemed to stop last summer, it was because the water was being diverted to fill an underground water reservoir/lake that the PLA had created for their underground mining activities. Then once the underground water resevoir/lake was full, the Galwan River's flow resumed.
I think the Indian Army should procure unmanned vehicles that can drill through rock to investigate these areas on Indian side of LAC for both PLA presence as well as to discover areas rich in rare earth elements for Indian mining exploration.
Perhaps the PLA's intent all along was to ensure that there was no Indian Army presence on the finger area as well as up to a few kilometers into the Indian side of LAC at Galwan, which is why the agreements the PLA negotiated with the Indian Army created a No Man's Land buffer area overground: Meanwhile the PLA can operate their underground mines under Indian side of LAC without the fear of being discovered (as underground mining also involves small explosions).
Another long term worry is that Chinese mining waste water could mix with the Himalayan runoff to pollute the river water downstream. We already know for a fact that the Chinese are doing this sort of mining at other parts of the Himalayas like near Arunachal Pradesh. Even in Arunachal, Chinese may have created underground mining tunnels into the Indian side of the LAC. The Chinese Communist Party is extremely greedy, and adept at stealing other countries' resources as they have already demonstrated in the South China Sea.
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