At least 25 people have died in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar (formerly Burma), with rescue teams searching for a dozen missing people, local media reported Wednesday.
According to the first information, a huge wall of sand and stone about 300 meters high and 76 meters wide collapsed, The Global New Light of Myanmar announced.
Ten rescue teams are involved in the operation to try to locate and recover the bodies trapped under the mud, in a remote mountainous area of the Kachin state, in the north of the country.
This type of event is common in the Hpakant region, in the same state, epicenter of the most profitable and extensive jade mines in the world, where miners work in extremely precarious conditions.
In July 2020, an avalanche engulfed more than 160 miners extracting jade from slopes dug in torrential rains.
A year earlier, at least 54 people died in a landslide at another point in the mining complex, located some 800 kilometers north of the capital.
Jade mines are a magnet for thousands of poor Burmese across the country, but in most cases the income is low and the risks are high.
Myanmar is the world’s largest producer of jadeite, a variety of jade mined mainly in the Kachin Mountains and particularly sought after in neighboring China, where most of its exports go.
Source: TSF
