Eight people tragically lost their lives, and one remains missing, following a collapse at an open-pit copper mine in Chingola, located approximately 400 km north of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. The accident occurred on Wednesday when mounds of earth buried the informal miners, according to Peacewell Mweemba, the provincial police commissioner. Two individuals managed to survive the collapse.
This tragic incident has taken a toll on one family in particular, with six of the deceased belonging to the same household. The victims were not official employees of the mining company but were instead informally searching for copper in the area, a common but dangerous practice in Zambia’s copper-rich regions.
This accident is the latest in a series of fatal incidents involving informal miners in Zambia. Earlier this month, a similar collapse claimed the lives of ten miners in Mumbwa, and in August, nine men were killed near Lusaka in a quarry collapse. Last December, heavy rains triggered landslides at another Chingola mine, resulting in over 30 fatalities.
President Hakainde Hichilema has expressed deep concern over the rising number of miner deaths, calling the recent accidents “unacceptable.”