Two killed, around 20 missing after jade mine collapse in Hpakant

At least two people were killed on Monday morning with as many as 20 missing when part of hillside under a slag heap collapsed at a jade extraction site in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, local residents said. The collapse of the muddy pile of mining refuse is the latest in a series of similar incidents in and near Hpakant, Myanmar’s most important centre for jade production. It occurred at around 9am at the Tin Aung Kyaing company’s old mining site in Hpakant Township’s Taung Yar Kone village, Long Hkin village tract. Some residents reported that approximately 20 people may be trapped underground after heaps of jade mining waste fell in a massive mudslide at the old Tin Aung Kyaing company site in Taung Yar Kone village, Long Hkin village tract. “We’ve recovered one body, and we’re quite sure another person didn’t make it. We had been searching for him, and just heard they’d found him too. So, that makes two confirmed deaths,” a local man said. “They’re still trying to verify how many people are actually missing in the collapse.” He added that the two identified men who died were 19 and 42 years old. While only two fatalities have been confirmed so far, rescue teams and social welfare organisations estimated that as many as 20 people had been buried in the mudslide, according to a 30-year-old Hpakant resident involved in responding to the disaster. He said that with no updated list of missing persons available, rescue operations were called off around 2pm after the confirmation of only two deaths. The likeliest cause of the landslide was recent rainy weather, which had saturated and loosened the soil on the embankments and heaps of mining waste surrounding the extraction sites, the man from Hpakant explained. “The rain was heavy the night before, and in the morning, part of the ground near a house by the embankment in Taung Yar Kone collapsed and slid down. Two people digging there were buried under the falling heap of dirt,” the man said. Jade mining companies usually increase the pace of their operations during the dry season in Hpakant Township, with most slowing or suspending activities during the monsoon season. Most of those still working during the rainy season are so-called yemase miners or jade-pickers, who use small excavators and stone crushers to sift through the unstable refuse heaps at abandoned and inactive company mining sites, taking considerable risk to search for jade left behind in the slag. Accidents like the most recent collapse and armed conflict have both endangered the lives of civilian residents of Hpakant. Since early May of this year, some 50 people have died amid clashes between anti-junta and regime forces after the military advanced into the township to reclaim previously captured territory. As of last week, clashes and skirmishes were ongoing in several parts of Hpakant Township between the Myanmar military and an alliance of anti-junta fighters led by the Kachin Independence Army, with several civilian homes destroyed in junta airstrikes.

Two killed, around 20 missing after jade mine collapse in Hpakant

Deadly landslides at jade extraction sites are a constant risk for Hpakant Township residents already endangered by the armed clashes and junta airstrikes occurring there

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