News / Colombia

6 dead, 9 missing in Colombia gold mine collapse

Saturday, 16 May 2015 5:28 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 16 May 2015 5:28 AM ]

Forensic personnel and rescue workers carry the corpse of one of the fifteen miners who were trapped by the collapse of a gold mine in Riosucio, Colombia on May 15, 2015. ©AFP

Six miners have been killed and nine reported missing in an unlicensed Colombian gold mine on an indigenous reservation in the Latin American nation, rescuers said.

The announcement on Friday came as authorities are still conducting a probe into the accident in the mine in the northwestern town of Riosucio, AFP reported.

The bodies were taken to the city of Pereira to be identified, the report further said, adding that the miners are believed to be trapped in shafts 17 meters underground.

This is while investigators stated that a power cut in the vicinity most likely led to the shutoff of the mine’s water pumps, flooding the shafts and causing the collapse.

Meanwhile, the latest recovery of remains came hours after a separate body was retrieved, draining the hopes of worried relatives that more of the missing miners may still be found alive.

Moreover, the government’s disaster relief agency UNGRD announced that search and rescue operations are due to be completed by the end of the weekend.

Meanwhile, local media reports cited the head of Colombia’s National Mining Agency as saying that the organization will question the owners of the mine, which was in the process of legalization but was barred from digging the shafts that were involved in the mine’s collapse.

Colombia is a major gold producer and mining for the precious metal has boomed over the past decade as the price of gold has climbed from less than $400 per ounce to nearly $1,200.

MFB/NN/HRB

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