Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of 29 miners who died of suffocation last week after an air compressor failure in a mine in northern Tanzania, state-owned radio reported on Sunday night.
Tanzania’s prime minister, Frederick Sumaye, who on Sunday visited the scene of the accident — a mine in Merelani, in the Arusha region, where the semi-precious stone tanzanite is quarried — ordered its closure pending thorough investigation of the cause
of the accident.
Sumaye also ordered police and mining officials to establish the actual number of victims, because reports suggested that more than 50 people could have entered the mine on that day.
Magayani had earlier said his register showed that only 32 people were in the mine when the disaster occurred.
Tanzanite, a dark blue semi-precious stone, only occurs in Tanzania’s Merelani Hills near Arusha.
Allegedly discovered by a Masai tribesman in 1967, the stone is mined mainly by small-scale miners.
Sumaye has also ordered mining officials to conduct safety assessments on all the area’s mines to avoid future accidents.
Earlier on Saturday, a mining official said that rescue efforts had been hampered by lack of equipment.
”The task is difficult due to lack of proper equipment, but Afgem, a Johannesburg-listed firm, which is the only major operator in the area, had promised to provide equipment to help recover more
bodies,” mining department official Alex Magayani said.
Preliminary reports say the accident was caused by the failure of an air compressor supplying oxygen to the pit, where tanzanite gemstones are dug out by small-scale miners.
The tragedy is the second biggest at the mines in the last five years.
In April 1998, some 100 miners died and 21 were rescued after torrential rains flooded 14 mineshafts in Merelani. – Sapa-AFP