BOGOTÁ, Colombia — At least 14 miners were killed and seven others injured when an open-pit gold mine operating without permits collapsed in a remote corner of Colombia’s Nariño province, regional authorities said, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera reported.
The collapse happened in the rural Chambero sector of the Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé municipality, which is surrounded by dense rainforest and can be reached only by boat or small aircraft. The Nariño government said search efforts ended Monday night.
Jorge Tovar Castillo, a disaster response official in Nariño, said an additional 12 to 15 miners had been reported missing, and that communication with the area had been difficult, Al Jazeera reported.
“This emergency once again highlights the risks associated with informal mining,” the Nariño government said in a statement. “In less than three months, two collapsed mines in Nariño have killed 27 people,” the AP reported.
Governor Luis Alfonso Escobar described the site as an “informal” mine. “At this moment our priority is to save lives, accompany families and guarantee an opportune response to this painful tragedy,” he wrote on X.
In August, 13 people died in a similar mining accident in the municipality of Policarpa, also in Nariño. Informal and unregulated mining is common in rural parts of Colombia, where operations often lack adequate safety infrastructure, leading to frequent fatal accidents.
Sources: AP, Al Jazeera
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