A landslide in a jade mine in northern Myanmar left more than 30 individuals missing, with rescue operations in progress on Monday, according to a rescue authority.
The event took place in Hpakant, a secluded mountainous region in Kachin state, roughly 600 miles north of Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon. This region is recognized as the world’s primary source of high-quality jade mining.
On Monday, a local rescue leader informed The Associated Press that the landslide near Manna village at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday engulfed over 30 jade miners, pushing them into a neighboring lake.
A cascade of earth and rubble from nearby mines rushed approximately 1,000 feet down a cliff, impacting the miners on its descent.
The official confirmed 34 individuals were unaccounted for, with local rescuers scouring the lake. Eight injured miners were hospitalized on Sunday.
A miner, seeking anonymity for safety reasons, shared that three fellow workers were dragged into the lake by the landslide, with the majority of victims being male.
Incidents of this nature, though typically on a reduced scale, are not uncommon. The casualties often comprise freelance miners living beside large piles of discarded soil left by major mining companies.
These miners sift through the remnants for jade fragments and typically inhabit deserted mine pits situated beneath these precarious earth heaps. Many of these scavengers are undocumented migrants from different regions.
