Another horrendous day for the mining industry. At least 80 people are feared dead following a massive mountain landslide near Chongquing that buried an iron ore plant and six houses under “millions of cubic meters” of rock and earth, Xinhua reports. Seven people are reported to have been rescued. Power is out and communications down in the area.
While it is not yet known what caused the mid-afternoon landslide there is inevitable speculation it would have been the result of mining activity. Land subsidence, cave-ins and landslides are commonplace in what is one of the world’s most deadly industries. Xinhua has reported that there were 400,000 mining accidents last year. It was only last September that 276 died in Shanxi province after a waste reservoir on a mountainside collapsed deluging a village below in a sea of mud and rocks.
