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‘Minimal chance of survival’ for miners in Myanmar | Mining Issues

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At least 25 people have been hospitalized, while about 50 others are still missing following the collapse of the jade mines at Hpakant in Kachin state.

Many of the jade miners who went missing on Thursday following a landslide in Kachin state Myanmar have “little chance of survival”, according to the head of the fire department, as night rescue operations were halted by a single death.

“It is difficult to estimate how many were missing, but we are estimating at least 50 missing and have little chance of survival,” Pyae Nyein, head of the fire department in Hpakant Township, told Reuters.

Erosion and debris tore up a pile of rubbish in Hpakant on Wednesday, burying workers under the trash. Hpakant is the center of the country’s secret jade industry, which attracts poor workers from across the country in search of gemstones that are often exported to China.

Initial reports say between 70 and 100 people went missing, but later the number was reduced to 50.

Ko Nyi, a rescue worker, told AFP he had sent 25 people to hospital and found one dead.

Jack from the Myanmar Rescue Organization also told AFP that the search was suspended Wednesday due to fog and mildew, and he is due to resume Thursday morning.

It appears to have been buried beneath the ground. Here the cold is why we stopped, but we will continue.

Hundreds of miners returned to Hpakant in the rainy season to look for fraudulent mines, according to a local official, even though the military government banned mining until March 2022.

“They dig a mine at night and in the morning they dig up the soil and shake it,” said the source.

The opposition National Unity Government has also suspended mining in the area.

Economic hardships

Groups of their families stood on empty, muddy banks on the beach near the slope, while rescue workers wearing hard hats and jackets searched the water in boats Wednesday, photos posted on Facebook by the fire department show.

Deadly floods and other accidents are common in Hpakant. In a landslide at the end of last week, reporters also reported that at least six people had been killed.

The economic crisis over the COVID-19 epidemic has attracted more migrants to the jade mines despite tensions over Myanmar’s military coup in February.

In a statement, Wednesday’s report by Corruption Corruption stated that Wednesday’s incident “shows how the military has destroyed jade mines in northern Myanmar and the urgency of the need for the military to use the country’s natural resources as money. way of life “.

Hanna Hindstrom, chief campaigner at Global Witness, added that the accident was “a disturbing reminder that lives are often secondary to the Hpakant jade mines, where lawlessness, strife and corruption are rampant. Another tragedy that can be avoided”.

The ousted government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has promised to clean up after companies in 2016, but human rights activists say they have changed a bit.

In July last year, more than 170 people, most of them refugees, died one of the worst accidents in Hpakant after a pile of mineral debris fell into the sea.

Myanmar produces 90 percent of the world’s jade, according to Reuters news agency and mining officials.

Most of the jade comes from Hpakant, where rights groups claim that mining companies with military bases and military bases make billions of dollars a year.

The February insurgency also eliminated any possibility of restructuring dangerous and illegal companies, Global Witness said earlier this year.

In a report released last week, Global Witness reported The Myanmar army is now operating a multimillion-dollar-of-the-world gemstone.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau said that based on the military’s control of the region, gemstones are at risk of contributing to military violence in Myanmar.



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