Gold mine collapse in Venezuela kills dozen people
The collapse of an artisanal gold mine in southeastern Venezuela near an Indigenous community killed at least 12 people, the government announced 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 country's border with Brazil.
Amid Venezuela's prolonged economic collapse, informal mining operations have flourished in remote, mineral-rich areas of the country, where thousands of miners work to extract lucrative metals, especially gold, in unsafe conditions.
The accident-prone mines are run with little or no oversight from authorities, though 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 divert streams and rivers.
In November, local non-governmental organization SOS Orinoco reported a previous 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 provisions to those affected, while also coordinating the transfer of the bodies to Puerto Ordaz, some 700 kilometers (435 miles) to the north.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest News
Showroom
For over 30 years, Werner South Africa Pumps & Equipment (PTY) LTD has been designing, manufacturing, supplying and maintaining specialist...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
