Seven men were killed and two others were seriously injured when the sand walls of a gold mine collapsed in Suriname, police in the former Dutch colony said.
Police inspector Bertrand Riedewald said the accident occurred late on Saturday when a mudslide eroded the open pit’s 20-metre walls and buried the illegal miners, who were mainly from the country’s Maroon indigenous community.
“Three miners were able to escape during the collapsing, while two survivors got severely injured and where taken for medical treatment to the hospital,” Inspector Riedewald said.
The mine at Money Hill, 150 kilometres south-east of the capital Paramaribo, belongs to the Surgold concession, a joint venture between US-based multinationals Alcoa and Newmont.
Money Hill is popular among small-scale wildcat miners, and Surgold has often urged them to halt their activities in the concession area and warned of the dangers of the illicit mining.
In a statement, Surgold said the accident took place in an illegal artisanal mining area located within Surgold’s Merian Right of Exploration.
