Scores Dead in Collapse of Illegal Mine in Sudan

More than 60 workers were killed when an unlicensed desert gold mine collapsed in an area of Sudan's Darfur where hundreds died in fighting over the precious commodity, the district chief said.  It was not known how many people may still be missing after the accident in Jebel Amir district, more than 125 miles northwest of the state capital El Fasher.

Production from unofficial gold mines has become a key revenue source for Sudan's cash-strapped government.  It is also a tempting but dangerous occupation for residents of Sudan's poverty-stricken western region of Darfur which has been devastated by a decade of civil war.

"The number of people who died is more than 60," said Haroun al-Hassan, local commissioner for Jebel Amir, adding that rescue operations were still taking place.  "I cannot give exact figures because no one got precise numbers of how many people were going inside the tunnel," which descends 40 metres (yards), he said.

Rescuers were using hand tools to try to reach the victims, he said, without specifying whether anyone might still be alive.  "We cannot use machines because if they came near, the ground will collapse. People are using traditional tools and because of this, the rescue is very slow," Hassan said, unable to give more details.

"I myself saw this land collapse. It started from Monday evening but the main collapse happened on Tuesday," said a miner who works in a different part of the area.  "Nobody takes the names of those who go inside. Only their colleagues or their relatives know where they are," the miner said, requesting anonymity.  They risk their lives, maybe striking gold but often coming up empty.

"Sometimes you spend more than three or four weeks without getting anything," the miner said. "Other times you get gold that you can sell for 10,000 pounds ($1,590)".  A resident of El Sireaf, the main town in the surrounding region, said he visited the remote site of the accident.  "The problem is that those small mines are so close together and if one of them falls it will affect the others. That is what happened in this mine. All the neighboring mines collapsed," he said, also declining to be named.

Sudan is trying to boost exports of the rare metal and other non-petroleum products after the separation of South Sudan two years ago left Khartoum without three-quarters of its crude oil production.  The lost oil accounted for most of Khartoum's export earnings and half of its fiscal revenues, sending inflation above 40 percent while the currency plunged in value on the black market.