At least
27 workers died in a fire at a gold mine
operating in a remote area of the Arequipa region in southern
Peru
.
A short circuit would have caused the fire in the tunnel of the
La Esperanza 1
mine , in the province of Condesuyos, according to members of the Police and the Prosecutor's Office present at the scene.
"The information we have from the police station (is that there are)
27 deaths inside the mine
," prosecutor Giovanni Matos told the N television channel, according to the AFP agency.
The fire, apparently followed by an explosion, would have spread on Saturday, but it was only this Sunday that the police had confirmation of the victims.
The owner of the mine, Esteban Rey Huamaní, was the one who went to the Tanaquihua police station, located an hour and a half away, to request help.
“As soon as the fatal accident occurred, personnel from the mining company were mobilized;
Later, at approximately 12:45 p.m., when the event was reported to the local authorities, personnel from the Yanaquihua health center, located some 500 meters from the mine entrance, went to the place to treat the people who had been injured, including they,
three rescuers
”, reads the document of the Regional Government of Arequipa.
As reported by the newspaper El Comercio, since it was a normal working day at the site, it was presumed that there were trapped workers inside
.
But the information could not be confirmed because "from the mine there is no way to communicate by telephone," according to authorities.
Only on Sunday could the death of the workers be confirmed.
The mine affected by the fire is operated by Minera Yanaquihua, a medium-sized company that has been operating for 23 years and exploits some 15,000 ounces of gold per year, according to information on its website.
As the regional manager of Energy and Mines, Yakir Rozas Manya, told El Comercio, it is a small mining company that works under subcontracting and carries out activities in the process of being formalized.
They mine gold
.
It was also an authorized establishment, Peruvian media reported.
On its website, the Esperanza mine also reported that it has nine mine entrances, all connected inside.
The exploitation method is based on drilling and the "sustainability of the work is done with wood: frames and safety props"
According to the information provided by the authorities,
the flames devoured the wooden props of the gold deposit.
At the moment there are no official reports of workers injured or trapped in the place.
The fire
It is one of the
worst mining accidents in recent years in Peru,
the largest gold producer in Latin America.
The rescue forces are securing the place to extract the bodies from the mine, some 10 hours away by car from the city of Arequipa.
One of the dead was identified by his relatives as Federico Mamani, 51 years old.
"We found out that there are 27 workers" who died, his brother told channel N, who avoided identifying himself.
The victims would have been
buried at a depth of about 100 meters
in a straight line, according to local media in Arequipa.
Several
Relatives came to the closest police station to the scene of the tragedy to request information about the rescue efforts.
Mining is one of the engines of the Peruvian economy with an 8.3% participation in GDP, and Peru is the second largest producer of silver, copper and zinc worldwide;
but also the first producer of gold, zinc, tin, lead and molybdenum in Latin America, according to official data.
Despite the high degree of informality in mining activity, accidents are not frequent.
In 2020, four workers died after being trapped inside an artisanal mine affected by a landslide, also in Arequipa.
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