Forgot your password?
Search For Tibet Miners After Landslide Buries Huts
BBC NEWS, CHINA
March 30, 2013: Rescuers have yet to find any survivors after a landslide early on Friday buried 83 Chinese miners as they slept near the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, Chinese state-run media say 1,000 police, firefighters and doctors have been sent to the disaster site.
The miners' camp, at an altitude of 4,600m (15,000ft) 70km (45 miles) east of Lhasa, was destroyed by thousands of tons of rock.
In a separate incident, a gas explosion at a coalmine in Jilin has killed 28. The state-owned Tonghua Mining Group runs the Babao mine in the city of Baishan in the northeast of the country. Another 13 miners were rescued after the explosion at 22:40 (14:40 GMT) on Friday.
Migrant workers
The mine in Tibet, which produces copper, as well as some silver and gold, is operated by a subsidiary of state-owned China National Gold Group, China's biggest gold producer.
Eyewitnesses quoted by Chinese state media describe a large excavator, used for heavy mining work, having been sliced in two.
China's newly appointed President Xi Jinping is said to have ordered authorities to "spare no efforts" in the rescue operation. But, reports the BBC's John Sudworth, given the scale of the landslide, and the time that has now passed since it struck early on Friday morning, hopes must be fading.
State media reports said most of the workers were ethnic Han Chinese, with two reported to be ethnic Tibetans. Most were said to be migrant workers from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces.
A vast amount of debris and land engulfed the workers' camp in Maizhokunggar county, Xinhua news agency reported. Police said the area that collapsed was up to 4 sq km (1.5 sq miles).
Chinese officials believe the Tibetan plateau has huge resources, including millions of tons of copper, lead, zinc and iron ore.
Critics claim that Beijing's interests are driven by a desire to exploit the region's rich mineral wealth. The government argues its investment brings modernization and better living standards for local Tibetans.
