MYITGYINA- At least two jade scavengers are missing and four injured in the collapse of an old jade mine in San Taw Wun Company block near Hmawzar village, Hpakant Township, Kachin State, over 9 pm of January 4th.

“Collapse occurred near our village. We already announced the list of missing people to the ward leaders. Victims from Malang and Hmawzar villages are being registered as missing people. I think authorities can’t give the exact list of missing people because there were a lot of illegal jade scavengers,” said La Aung, an administrator of Lonekhin village-tract.

“In Hpakant, people are now digging for jade without discipline. All jade hunters in Hpakant region broke rules and regulations of the Gems Law. If we were to overcome that situation, all must participate for it. We would like to urge to help us,” said Dar Shi La Sai, Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.

Police accidentally killed a scavenger in a jade mine owned by Tit Thone Lone Company in Hpakant on February 4th, according to the sources.

“The police fired a warning shot at the group of scavengers. Four or five were warning shots in the air. One of the shots hit the victim,” said the scavenger.

In Hpakant, there are about 300,000 migrant workers that migrated to the region from areas across the country and are now illegally working at the jade mining plots, scavenging in huge piles of mine waste every day.

Scavengers often die due to collapse of mine waste dumps, landslides and huge wave of other waste and debris that had stuck to the cliffs.