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Tag: northern Myanmar

  • 32 die following landslip at jade mine in Myanmar

    32 die following landslip at jade mine in Myanmar

    At least 32 people have died in a landslip at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, a local fire services spokesman told CNN on Wednesday.

    According to Sa Tay Za of the Hpakant Fire Service Department, the landslip occurred on Sunday in the isolated and mountainous village of Hpakant in the northern state of Kachin.

    Za added that all but one of the bodies discovered were those of men, and they had all been given back to their families.

    According to Myanmar’s state-run publication Global New Light, the collapse of a sand cliff had trapped the miners by allowing water to flood into a nearby lake.

    About 70% of the world’s jade is produced in Myanmar, and Hpakant is home to some of the biggest and most profitable jade mines in the world, worth billions of dollars.

    According to the non-profit watchdog group Global Witness, the business is riddled with conflict, corruption, exploitation, and environmentally harmful practises and is mostly driven by demand from neighbouring China.

    According to the group, the jade sector in Myanmar was valued roughly $31 billion in 2014, or close to half of the nation’s reported GDP for that year.

    However, because it is mostly unregulated, the industry’s real value is unknown. An advocacy group called the Natural Resource Governance Institute named Myanmar’s diamond industry as one of the most opaque in the world.

    Miners, who are frequently poor immigrants from other regions of the country, are constantly in danger of dying or being hurt by landslides.

    In 2020, a jade mine in Hpakant experienced a landslip that resulted in the deaths of more than 160 individuals. The same region experienced a similar and fatal disaster in 2021.

  • At least 30 people missing after jade mine landslip in Myanmar

    At least 30 people missing after jade mine landslip in Myanmar

    Following a mudslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, at least 30 persons are reported missing.

    The largest and most profitable jade mines in the world are located in the hilly town of Hpakant in the Kachin state.

    Many of people impacted are thought to be locals, many of whom work and live in abandoned mine pits, who are sifting through the muck along the cliffs.

    When Myanmar experiences severe monsoon rains between May and October, deadly landslides frequently occur in the region.

    In the same region, a landslip claimed at least 162 lives in July 2020, while an accident in 2015 claimed more than 110 lives.

    The rainy season has forced the suspension of mining operations. But many of the victims of the disaster, which occurred on Sunday at around 15:30 local time, were independent scavengers seeking for jade.

    As a result of the heavy rain, enormous heaps of soil that were left over from mining company excavations that were more than 150 metres high became loose, rushing down the cliff and picking up miners in the process.

    Additionally, survivors have related how they were mining for jade when a wall of dirt, pebbles, and floodwater engulfed them.

    Hundreds of illegal mines have left their scars on the environment in this region of Myanmar. These draw a sizable number of migrant workers from various regions of the nation who travel there in quest of jade, the majority of which is sold in China.

    34 individuals were reported missing, eight were hurt, and were carried to a hospital on Sunday, one rescue worker told the Associated Press.

    Although several miners had already returned to the scene in the hopes of discovering jade, he claimed that search and rescue operations were still ongoing.

    The rescue worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was concerned about being detained by the military, stated, “We haven’t found any dead bodies yet.”

    The military administration of Myanmar relies heavily on revenue from the jade mining industry. Additionally, it supports the Kachin Independence Army, an armed ethnic force.

    Because of the jade mines there, which are thought to be worth about $30 billion (£23.6 billion) a year, the military and Kachin militants have struggled for control of this region of the Kachin State for many years.

    There have been numerous clashes there both before and after the military takeover in 2021 that toppled the Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government.