Eight miners have died following the collapse of an open-pit copper mine in Chingola, located in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province. According to Peacewell Mweemba, the provincial police commissioner, one miner remains missing, while two others were found alive.
State media reports indicate that six of the victims belonged to the same family. The miners were not employed by the mining company but were part of a group that had entered the site illegally to search for copper, a widespread practice in Zambia.
The incident adds to a growing list of tragedies involving informal miners in the country. Earlier this month, ten miners died in a similar collapse in Mumbwa, located in central Zambia. In August, nine men lost their lives at a quarry near Lusaka when a massive pile of earth gave way.
Last December, over 30 informal miners perished at another open-pit mine in Chingola after heavy rains triggered landslides, burying them in tunnels.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema recently expressed deep concern over the frequency of mining-related fatalities, calling the death toll from such incidents “unacceptable.”
