Almost 40 miners were killed with eight missing in Sudan on Tuesday, December 28, when a rudimentary gold mine collapsed, a Sudanese government official has said.
The disaster occurred near Nuhud, a town about 500 kilometres (310 miles) west of capital Khartoum, said Khaled Dahwa, the head of the state-run Mineral Resources Company in West Kordofan.
“Thirty-one traditional miners were killed because of a mine collapsing,” he told AFP, adding one person survived and eight others were still missing.
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Another company official said four miners were killed at the same mine in January 2021.
“Authorities at the time shut down the mine and installed security but a couple of months ago they left,” he said.
Gold mining by artisans is a dangerous profession in Sudan largely due to poor infrastructure.
The practise involves people digging the ground using excavators in hopes of unearthing gold.
About two million artisanal miners produce about 80 percent of Sudan’s annual gold production of around 80 tonnes, according to official figures.