More than 50 people died on November 13 in Mawshan, Hkahku village, in Hpakant Jade land, in Kachin State, during a landslide at a dump site located in a jade mine, a local resident said.

“There are always about 100 people rummaging in the soil at the dump for precious green stones called Yemase. But, that morning at 4:30 a landslide occurred, and no one knows how many died,” a patron in Kachin Church from the village said.

The incident occurred in a mine owned by the Tit Tonglong Jade Company (Triple One Jade Company) because the soil discarded by the company was piled too high and fell on the people searching for the stones on the side of the mound.

The victims included company workers, and three jade businessmen waiting to buy jade stones from the people searching for them.

“They (the three jade businessmen) got killed as they were warming themselves by a fire and waiting to buy jade from the people,” a source from the village said.

The company was able to find the bodies of the three businessmen: they were Gyung Lwan (52), Nhkum Naw Aung (42) and Nhkum La Gawng (38).

However, no bodies of those searching for jade were found.

Similar landslides have caused deaths in the past at the mine.

The company has closed the accident site and has stopped searching for bodies, said the local source.

Burmese military authorities in Mawshan said it is the responsibility of the mining company to find the bodies, according to the local source.