2 March 2009

Landslide buries a gold mining village in Peru

Posted by Dave Petley

Reuters is reporting that at least 10 people have been killed and a further 30 are missing after a landslide struck the gold mining village of Huanchumay, which is situated in a remote part of Carabaya province. They quote a civil defence official, Victor Ibanez, as having said:

“We have 10 dead so far and five wounded. We have no accurate data for the missing but are talking about 30 to 35 missing people. The landslide took place early on Monday morning and was due to heavy rain in the area.’

The image below shows the general location of the mine in Ayapata. This is pretty inhospitable terrain.