Bangkok, Dec 22, (dpa/GNA) – At least one body has been found following a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, with fears growing as up to 100 are still feared missing.
Rescuers reported discovering four bodies, but noted that three of the dead were from an accident at another local jade mine a few days ago, whose bodies had only just been found.
“We have been searching for the bodies, since in the morning, but we just only saw a dead body in the mud,” said one rescuer. He said rescue efforts were ongoing.
The mine workers had been collecting stones in a jade-rich area of Hpakant in Kachin state when they were buried by a mudslide, according to emergency services and witnesses.
Mining waste had earlier fallen into a lake and triggered the landslide, according to Dashi Naw Lawn from the Kachin Network Development Foundation, which was helping with the rescue effort.
He said the miners were swept into the lake.
“Almost 100 could be missing, according to workers who escaped from the landslide,” he told dpa by phone. He was not able to confirm any deaths yet.
Myanmar is one of the world’s largest suppliers of jade, which is especially popular in China. The landslide occurred in the region that is the source for most of the stone.
The industry is barely regulated and miners work in sometimes life-threatening conditions.
Individuals often pick through piles of waste from large-scale industrial mining firms in the hope of finding pieces of jade missed by the machines.
In 2015, 116 people died in a similar accident. Last year, more than 170 miners were killed in a mudslide.
GNA