Eight miners died after being buried under mounds of earth that collapsed on them in an open-pit copper mine in Zambia on Wednesday, police said.
Provincial police commissioner Peacewell Mweemba reported that one miner was missing and another two survived the incident at the mine in Chingola, a city in the Copperbelt Province. State media said six of the deceased miners were from the same family.
The victims were not employees of the mining company but part of a group who had been searching for copper at the mine without permission, a common phenomenon in Zambia. It’s the latest in a series of tragedies involving informal miners in the copper-rich nation.
Earlier this month, 10 informal miners died in a collapse in Mumbwa in central Zambia. In August, nine men were killed at a quarry near the capital, Lusaka, when a huge pile of earth collapsed on them.
Last December, more than 30 informal miners were killed at another open-pit mine in Chingola when heavy rain caused landslides that buried them in the tunnels they were working in.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema recently said the number of miners who had died in accidents was “unacceptable.” The latest incident highlights the dangerous conditions faced by informal miners searching for valuable resources like copper in the country.
