At least one body of an illegal miner was found on Friday after the collapse of an artisanal sand mine in Gicumbi, a district in northern Rwanda, a senior local administrative official confirmed to APA in Kigali.
“The provisional record shows one person was dead and removed from the well,” said Emmanuel Makombe , a senior local administrative official in Gicumbi district.
Rwanda’s mining board blames the mining industry for regular deaths, saying many mines’ underground tunnels lack support and that firms are either negligent or slow to implement safety standards.
Non-standard mining, poor equipment and unskilled workers to extract the underground treasure often claim the lives of miners in Rwanda.
Since 2018, the Rwanda Mines Petroleum and Gas Board introduced stringent law in a bid to ban artisanal mining saying the regulation is intended to attract “serious” investors who can afford modern practices that are not harmful to the environment and the miners.
The mining sector generated $373 million in revenue from its principle minerals — cassiterite, coltan and wolfram, up from $166 million the previous year.
The main minerals produced in Rwanda are tin, tungsten, and tantalum (3Ts) of which the East African country is ranked among the top producers worldwide.
CU/as/APA