Wednesday 3 April 2013

Deadly landslide in Tibet


Rescue workers have now recovered 66 bodies from the Tibet miners’ camp that was buried by a huge landslide last Friday.   Another 17 workers are still missing from the camp 45 miles east of the capital, Lhasa and 15,000 feet up,

The miners were employed by a gold mine owned by a subsidiary of the state-owned China National Gold Group, the country's biggest gold producer.   Most were ethnic Han Chinese, with only two reported to be Tibetan.

Rescue teams have had to battle freezing weather and altitude sickness, and efforts had to be suspended for a day because of the fear of further landslides.

In recent years, China has discovered extensive mineral resources in Tibet, including copper, lead, zinc, and iron ore, but the country is prone to landslides, and this danger could be exacerbated by mining.

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