Rescuers dug through sludge and rock on Tuesday in their search for dozens of miners trapped for the fourth day in northern Tanzania as hopes dimmed of finding any survivors.
Rescue teams retrieved 10 new bodies from the flooded mines on Monday, bringing the total number to 16 bodies recovered since Saturday when water swept a tanzanite concession in Mirerani, near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, police said.
”So far we have recovered 16 bodies. We are continuing with the operation to look for more bodies,” police Commissioner Venance Tossi, who was commanding the operation, said on Monday.
Mine owners ruled out the chances of finding any survivors.
”There is no hope of finding anybody alive,” said state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) radio, quoting the owners. The teams were now targeting about 50 people or bodies still trapped in the pits.
Officials gave diverging counts of the number of miners who escaped or were rescued from the pits, where thousands dig to find the precious purple-blue mineral named after the country.
State radio, quoting the mine owners, said 93 people close to the surface escaped the flooding. Other officials said 35 escaped.
In June 2002, at least 39 tanzanite miners died after inhaling carbon monoxide produced from a dynamite explosion, one of the many fatal accidents linked to mining in Tanzania.
Tanzanite, a purple-blue shimmering stone, has been found only in northern Tanzania and in 2005 a leading gemstone miner said it unearthed the world’s largest tanzanite stone weighing about 3kg.
The lure of the gem has drawn thousands of miners to Mirerani, which resembles a gold-rush town dotted with hardware stores, bars and brothels.
Small-scale miners such as those affected by the latest disaster only get food rations from their employers and are paid only if they hit tanzanite. Some of them work months without pay.
Many dig in highly unsafe and unstable mines using primitive tools and garden implements.
Tanzanite is believed to be limited to East Africa’s Rift Valley region and the pits where the accident happened are located in the heart of Maasai land, a short distance from Mount Kilimanjaro. — Sapa-AFP