8 September 2022

The 5 September 2022 landslide at a mine at Labohan Dagang in Malaysia

Posted by Dave Petley

The 5 September 2022 landslide at a mine at Labohan Dagang in Malaysia

On 5 September 2022 a significant landslide occurred at an active tin (?) mine in Labohan Dagang, Banting, Malaysia.  The event was captured on several videos that have been circulating on social media in Malaysia.  The two major components of these videos can be seen on Youtube:-

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The first sequence shows drone footage of the initiation of a component of the landslide.  The failure is clearly retrogressive, with the collapse being rotational, but quickly fluidising to generate a highly mobile flowslide:-

Failure of the 5 September 2022 landslide at Labohan Dagang.

Failure of the 5 September 2022 landslide at Labohan Dagang. Still from a video posted to Youtube.

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The second component seems to show a displacement wave generated by the landslide crossing the base of the pit.  The mobility of this flow is exceptionally high.  The final part of the video reportedly shows the rescue of an excavator operator who was caught up the landslides.  However, most reports indicate that there were no casualties, so I’m glad to say that it is likely that the individual was not injured.

There is comparatively little online about this incident.  The Selangor Journal has a brief article, which indicates that the landslide occurred at about 1 pm local time on 5 September 2022.  On first inspection from Planet imagery of the area, I suspect that the location is an zone of mine workings at 2.808, 101.578, but this needs to be confirmed.  The circumstances of the failure are not at all clear, but some reports indicate that three failures were involved.

A prohibition order has been imposed on the site in the aftermath of the landslide.

There is some confusion about this event online.  Some reports suggest that it occurred on 4 September 2022, whilst others claim the accident occurred in an iron ore mine.

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Acknowledgement

I wish to thank a kind loyal reader and old friend in Malaysia who made me aware of this fascinating event.