Landslide at a jade mine in Myanmar kills at least 32 people

A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar killed at least 33 people this week. Rescuers are still searching for at least three others who are still missing.

The landslide took place on Sunday in Hpakant, which is “the center of the world’s largest and most lucrative jade mining district.” The earth and debris from a combination of mines slid about 1,000 feet “down a cliff into a lake below, carrying 35 miners with it,” The Associated Press reported.

Following the landslide, around 150 rescuers utilized small boats to navigate the muddy waters of lake looking for survivors or trying to find the miners who died, per AP News.

At least eight men survived with injuries from the accident and were hospitalized, per The New York Times. Thirty-one of the bodies recovered by rescuers were returned to their relatives this week, CNN reported.

What causes landslides in Myanmar’s jade mining district?

This wasn’t the first time a landslide claimed the lives of miners in the area. At least 162 people were killed by a landslide in the area in July 2020, and 113 were killed in November 2015 from a similar accident, the Times reported.

Intense rain likely caused the landslide, loosening “massive piles of earth” that were “left over from excavations by mining companies, sending the dirt and debris hurtling down the cliff and sweeping up miners on the way,” according to BBC.

The region has been marred by hundreds of mines that operate unregulated, causing environmental and operational hazards to the area and those working in them, per BBC.

According to the Times, the victims killed in these accidents “are usually wildcat miners who settle near giant mounds of discarded earth,” and a majority of them “are unregistered migrants from other areas.”

Myanmar produces around 70% of the jade in the world, and the industry in Myanmar is worth billions of dollars, per CNN.