The collapse of an artisanal gold mine in southeastern Venezuela near an indigenous community has killed at least 12 people, the government said on Sunday.
A landslide on Wednesday buried the Paraiba de San Jose de Wadamapa mine near the town of Icabaru in Venezuela’s Bolivar state, close to the border with Brazil.
Amid Venezuela’s ongoing economic collapse, informal mining operations have flourished in remote, mineral-rich areas of the country, where thousands of miners work in unsafe conditions to extract lucrative metals, especially gold.
The accident-prone mines are run with little or no oversight from the authorities, although the government often processes the gold into bars for its own use.
Venezuela’s indigenous communities have a complex relationship with gold mining, which can provide an economic lifeline but also cause deforestation, mercury contamination and the diversion of streams and rivers.
In November, local NGO SOS Orinoco reported an earlier landslide at the same mine.
Venezuela’s Risk Management and Civil Protection Agency said in a post on X that it was providing food, water and medical care to those affected, while also coordinating the transfer of bodies to Puerto Ordaz, some 700 kilometres (435 miles) to the north.
