A file picture of a jade mine site in Hpakant township, where a landslide occurred in 2023. - AP
BANGKOK: An overnight landslide at a jade mining area in northern Myanmar has killed at least a dozen people and left many others missing, according to a resident, rescuers and independent media on Monday (Jan 13). They said about 50 houses were buried or damaged.
The accident occurred early Monday in Kachin state’s Hpakant township, a remote mountainous region at the center of the lucrative jade mining industry, about 950 kilometers (600 miles) north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. It’s a region where sporadic fighting has broken out between the Myanmar army and ethnic guerrilla forces.
Tarlin Mg, a resident near the accident area, told The Associated Press that the bodies of 12 people, including four children, had been recovered in Spott village.
He said about 50 houses there were buried by muddy water that seeped from a pond about 300 feet (91 meters) away where many tons of mining debris and waste had been poured.
Two local rescuers told the AP it was difficult finding missing people due to the large amount of mud, and large machinery was needed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation from the military or the guerrilla forces fighting it.
Kachin-based online media reported that about 30-50 people could be missing.
Landslides occur several times a year around Hpakant’s jade mines. In July 2020, at least 162 people died in a landslide in the same area, and 113 were killed in a November 2015 landslidee.
Most victims are independent miners who settle near mounds of discarded earth excavated by heavy machinery used by mining companies. They scavenge for bits of jade and usually work and live in abandoned mining pits at the base of the mounds, which become particularly unstable during the rainy season.
Most scavengers are unregistered migrants from other areas, making it hard to determine how many people are missing after accidents.
Smuggling and illicit sales make it hard to know how big the local jade mining industry is, but revenue from sales of jade, pearls and gemstones from the area is estimated to run in the billions of dollars.
Human rights activists say jade mining is an important source of revenue for Myanmar’s military government.
The mines are also a main source of revenue for the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic armed group based in Kachin state that has been fighting for decades against the central government for greater autonomy.
A ceasefire in the region has been disrupted since since the military seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The region is now embroiled in conflict that has driven many civilians into refugee camps and nearby townships. - AP
