One dead, at least 70 missing after landslide at Myanmar jade mine

A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar yesterday killed at least one person, injured 25 and left dozens missing, a member of the rescue team said.

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

The disaster struck at a mine in Hpakant township close to the Chinese border in Kachin state, where billions of dollars of the precious mineral is believed to be scoured from bare hillsides each year.

"About 70-100 people are missing" following the landslide that struck around 4am, said rescue team member Ko Nyi.

"We've sent 25 injured people to hospital while we've found one dead."

Hundreds of diggers had returned to Hpakant during the rainy season to prospect in the treacherous open-cast mines, according to a local activist, despite a junta ban on digging until March.

"They mine at night and in the morning they tip out the earth and rock," said the activist, adding the added weight had caused the land to slip down into the lake.

Ko Nyi of the rescue team also said increased pressure from the weight of dumped soil and rock had pushed the ground downhill into the lake.

Around 200 rescuers were working to recover bodies, with some using boats to search for the dead in a nearby lake.

Access to the mines in the remote north of the country is heavily restricted by the military and Internet coverage is patchy.

Local outlet Kachin News Group said 20 miners had been killed in the landslide. Myanmar's fire services said personnel from Hpakant and the nearby town of Lone Khin were involved in the rescue but gave no figures of dead or missing.