Landslide at Myanmar jade mine kills more than 120 workers

Low-paid migrant workers 'smothered by a wave of mud' after heavy rains in northern region

Rescuers attempting to locate survivors after a landslide at a jade mine in Hpakant, Kachin state. AFP

Rescuers attempting to locate survivors after a landslide at a jade mine in Hpakant, Kachin state. AFP

Rescuers attempting to locate survivors after a landslide at a jade mine in Hpakant, Kachin state. AFP

People carry a body following a landslide at a mining site in Phakant, Kachin State City, Myanmar. Reuters

Rescue workers searching for people after a landslide accident at a jade mining site in Hpakant, Kachin State, Myanmar. EPA

Myanmar Fire Service Department rescuers carry a recovered body of a victim in a landslide from a jade mining area in Hpakant, Kachine state, northern Myanmar. Myanmar Fire Service Department via AP

The bodies of more than 120 jade miners were pulled from the mud after a landslide in northern Myanmar on Thursday, in one of the worst accidents to hit the perilous industry.

Scores die each year while working in the country's lucrative but poorly regulated jade industry, which uses low-paid migrant workers to scrape out a gem highly coveted in China.

The disaster struck after a bout of heavy rainfall close to the Chinese border in Kachin state, the Myanmar Fire Services Department said in a Facebook post.

The miners were "were smothered by a wave of mud", it said. The search and rescue operation was continuing, but "the total death toll so far is 126", it said.

Photos shared by the Myanmar military news site showed mud-slaked and bloodied bodies of miners laid out in grim rows under tarpaulins.

They had apparently defied a warning not to work the treacherous open mines during the rains, local police said.

Rescuers worked all morning to retrieve the bodies from a mud lake, pulling them to the surface and using tyres as makeshift rafts, before search and rescue efforts were suspended because of more heavy rain.

Police said 99 bodies were found by noon, with another 20 injured.

The workers were scavenging for the gemstones in the mountainous terrain of Hpakant township, where furrows from earlier digs had already loosened the earth.

Photos posted on the fire service Facebook page showed a search and rescue team wading through a valley flooded by the mudslide.

Rescuers carried bodies wrapped in tarpaulins out of the mud lake as rain poured down.

Unverified footage of the scene showed a torrent of sludge crashing through the terrain as workers scrambled up the sharp escarpments.

Police said the death toll could have been even higher if authorities had not warned people to stay away from the mining pits the day before.

"It could have been hundreds of people dead – more than this, but the notice might have saved some," superintendent Than Win Aung said.

Open jade mines have pockmarked Hpakant's remote terrain and given it the appearance of a vast moonscape.

Landslides in the area are common, especially when rainfall hammers the muddy terrain during Myanmar's monsoon season.

The workers combing through the earth are often from impoverished ethnic communities who are looking for scraps left behind by big firms.

A major collapse in November 2015 left more than 100 dead. A mudslide buried more than 50 workers last year.

Myanmar is one of the world's main sources of jadeite and the industry is largely driven by insatiable demand for the green gem from neighbouring China.

The mines are mired in secrecy, though Global Witness claims their operators are linked to former junta figures, the military elite and their cronies.

The watchdog estimated that the industry was worth some $31 billion (Dh114bn) in 2014, although very little reaches state coffers.

Northern Myanmar's abundant natural resources – including jade, timber, gold and amber – help finance both sides of a decades-long civil war between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the military.

The fight to control the mines and the revenues they bring frequently traps local civilians in the middle.