LA PAZ: Five miners died after being crushed in a gold mine collapse in Bolivia’s Potosi department, authorities confirmed on Saturday. The victims were found buried under a landslide at the state-operated Amayapampa mine, the largest gold mining site in the region.
Potosi Police Commander Fernando Benitez stated, “Five adults were found inside the mine. The cause of death was suffocation due to crushing.” He added, “We assume that part of the hill collapsed and crushed them.”
The Amayapampa mine, run by the Bolivian Mining Corporation (Comibol), sits at over 4,000 meters above sea level, approximately 578 kilometers south of La Paz. The deceased were not regular Comibol employees but had permits for “paqoma,“ a traditional practice of collecting residual ore.
This incident raises the mining-related death toll in Potosi to 73 this year alone. In March, another collapse in La Paz claimed five miners’ lives. – AFP
