YANGON (AFP) – One person died and around 20 were missing after a deluge of water and mud swept through a jade mine in northern Myanmar, a rescue worker and local media said yesterday.
An old mining pit used to store rain runoff in Hpakant township in Kachin state burst its banks at around 4.30am yesterday, a rescuer told AFP.
Mud and water flooded another pit around 30 metres below, burying around 20 people working there along with several vehicles, they said.
One body was recovered and four people were being treated at a nearby clinic, he said, requesting anonymity.
Local media reported the same toll from the latest tragedy in the jade mines that pockmark the hills of Kachin state.
Dozens die each year while working in Myanmar’s highly lucrative but poorly regulated jade industry, which feeds insatiable demand for the gem in neighbouring China.
Miners also come to Hpakant from across Myanmar to pick through the piles of waste in the hopes of finding an overlooked hunk of jade.
In 2020, heavy rainfall triggered a massive landslide at another mine in Hpakant that entombed nearly 300 miners.
Watchdog Global Witness estimated that the industry was worth about USD31 billion in 2014.
But corruption means very little reaches state coffers.
