Landslide at Myanmar jade mine kills one, leaves dozens missing
- Rescuers say more than 70 people are missing and one body has been found at the Hpakant mine close to the Chinese border in Kachin state
- China’s highly coveted gem is mined in unsafe conditions and uses low-paid migrant workers, scores of whom die every year
Reports were scant from the area in Hpakant, which is the centre of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mining industry. It’s a region where sporadic fighting has broken out between the Myanmar army and ethnic guerrilla forces.
Gayunar Rescue Team official Nyo Chaw, who was coordinating the effort, said more than 70 miners who were digging for jade were swept into a lake a couple of hours before dawn when the landslide hit. Earth and waste from several mines around Lonekhin village slid 60 metres (about 200 feet) down a cliff and struck the miners, he said.
At least five young women and three small shops were also buried in Wednesday’s landslide. The body of a jade worker was unearthed from heavy mud by midday, Nyo Chaw said.
“About 150 rescuers and firefighters are searching for the area and we have found the body of a jade miner so far and keep finding others,” Nyo Chaw told the Associated Press.
Hpakant is a mountainous and remote area in Kachin state, 950 kilometres (600 miles) north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. A ceasefire in the region has been disrupted since a February 1 coup ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected government.