Another gold mine collapse occurred in Tuong Duong district.

(Baonghean)Early in the morning of July 17, a gold mine collapse occurred in Nga My commune, Tuong Duong district, killing 3 people and injuring 7 others, sounding the alarm about the situation of spontaneous and illegal gold mining in this mountainous district.

The spontaneous gold mining collapse occurred at 12:30 on July 17, 2012 at Xop Mai stream, Vang Mon village, Nga My commune, Tuong Duong district, taking the lives of 3 men, 7 others were injured and had to be treated at the infirmary. The 3 dead people include: Lo Van Hoa (1972), his son-in-law Lo Van Tu (1988), both residing in Vang Mon village, Nga My commune, Tuong Duong district, and Vi Van Ca (1994) of Ta Xieng village, Ngoc Lam commune, Thanh Chuong district.

The remaining scene was a deep hole with a radius of about 2m filled with water buried by a mass of rock and soil, the crack above was still fresh, the camp and gold mining tools were very rudimentary. After the incident, the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district mobilized local forces to quickly rescue the victims, support and encourage each family with a deceased person with 5 million VND, Nga My commune supported 1 million VND/victim. However, the pain of losing loved ones and the atmosphere of mourning still covered this highland village.



Scene of the gold mine collapse in Nga My commune.

Mr. Vi Van Dau - Chairman of Nga My Commune People's Committee said: "Recently, the illegal gold mining situation in the area has calmed down. However, in recent days, a group of about 10 people in the village bought a high-capacity vacuum cleaner to illegally mine gold at Xop Mai stream. The commune government reminded and made a record to suspend the mining, but the subjects still re-offended, secretly bringing the machine down to mine from the afternoon (July 16) and then at noon (July 17) the accident happened..."

Previously, many manual gold mining tunnel collapses had occurred in Tuong Duong district, but they did not seem to be enough to warn greedy gold miners. For the sake of life and immediate benefits, many people still blindly took the risk of joining the gold miners at unlicensed mines. More than a year ago, the gold mining tunnel collapse on April 2, 2011 in Den hamlet, Huoi Pai village, Yen Tinh commune caused the death of La Thi Thu Trang (born in 1999, a 5th grade student at Yen Tinh primary school).

Just one month later, on May 1, in Dinh Huong village, Tam Dinh commune, Tuong Duong district, a group of people went to dig for gold in the Lam river area. While everyone was busy digging for gold, water from outside rushed in and caused the tunnel to collapse, burying 5 people to death. Illegal gold mining activities have made the leveling and restoration work a "public matter that no one cries over", causing unpredictable dangers. Just a few days ago, in Anh Son district, on the Giang river flowing through Cao Veu 3 village, Phuc Son commune, two children Ha Van An (5 years old) and Luong Van Anh (6 years old), both Thai ethnic people, went to the above river to bathe, suddenly fell into a gold digging hole and died.

In response to illegal gold mining in the area, in 2011, the People's Committee and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tuong Duong district took many measures to propagate and educate about the Law on Minerals; coordinated with Working Group No. 1 of the Provincial Police's Environmental Police to inspect the area 5 times, imposing fines totaling over 190 million VND.

In the first 6 months of 2012, the district continued to coordinate with the provincial interdisciplinary delegation, establishing working group No. 1 led by the provincial Environmental Police to inspect mineral activities in communes twice along National Highway 7A. The district People's Committee directed the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to conduct 6 inspections of illegal mineral exploitation activities in the communes of Huu Khuong, Yen Tinh, and Luong Minh, imposing administrative fines of over 70 million VND. However, illegal, small-scale, spontaneous gold mining still occurs frequently, causing serious consequences.

Van Dung - Luong Nam