200 killed at illegal goldmine

  1. Posted on Sunday 21 March 2010 - 14:30
    guyson
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    Nangayi Guyson, AfricaNews reporter in Kampala, Uganda
    At least 200 people were killed when a trench collapsed at an unofficial gold mine in Sierra Leone, the West African country's ministry of mineral resources said.
    Sierra Leone map
    The accident occurred in the south of the country, about 290km from the capital, Freetown.

    "Over 200 artisanal gold miners were killed when a ... trench dug by the miners collapsed," a ministry spokesperson said.

    Informal gold mining is common in mineral-bearing African countries.

    The miners usually have no professional training or equipment and often dig by hand, and accidents are frequent such the sites, which do not meet safety standards found at professionally engineered mines.

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