Fourteen informal gold miners were killed in Suriname on Monday afternoon when a tunnel collapsed on a concession owned by a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned miner Zijin Mining, a Surinamese official said.
Fellow miners had recovered most of the bodies by the time government rescue teams arrived at the site in the south of the country, Jerry Slijngard of the Disaster Management Coordination Centre told local radio ABC Suriname on Tuesday morning.
A French search and rescue team will assist in the recovery of other possible victims, he added.
President Chan Santokhi on Monday declared a period of national mourning over the deaths.
Rosebel Gold Mines, the subsidiary bought by Zijin in February, said in a statement on Monday it regretted the deaths and had tried to remove the informal miners, known locally as porknokkers, with an eviction order, but they had returned.
“We have been in discussions with the Surinamese authorities for some time, during which we have repeatedly emphasised the dangers of illegal gold mining,” the company said. “There have been several efforts earlier this year to address this dangerous situation”.
The company said it had met with vice-president Ronnie Brunswijk on Monday about informal mining and then received news of the collapse, which it called a “poignant reminder” of the dangers of informal mining.
Rosebel’s previous owner, Canadian miner Iamgold, fired 325 contractors in 2019 after clashes between illegal miners and police, and was blockaded later that year.
Zijin faces problems with informal and illegal mining at other operations in South America.
