Not a word about six miners missing after forklift accident at Tibet mine

A search is underway for six workers who went missing after a lifting cage fell at a Chinese-backed copper mine in Tibet during shaft construction of an open-pit mine drainage system project, forcing to stop production.

The accident occurred on May 14 at the site of the Julong copper and polymetallic mine operated by Tibet Julong Copper Co. Ltd. in the copper-rich Gyama township of Meldrogunkar. county of Lhasa prefecture. Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. of China owns a 50.1% stake in the subsidiary.

The six missing miners work at Fujian Xingwanxiang Construction Group Co., Ltd., subcontracted by Tibet Julong Copper Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group, to carry out the construction of the project. Their names and ethnic identities have not been released.

After the accident, Julong Copper started an emergency and rescue plan and reported the incident to relevant government departments, Zijin Mining Group said in a statement on Monday. statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and published on the company’s website.

Julong Copper also suspended production and was investigating the incident, which “led to the loss of contact with six Xingwanxiang staff,” it said.

“The company will continue to pay attention to the Incident and will comply with its information disclosure obligations in a timely manner,” the statement said.

Zijin Mining Group has not released any updates and did not respond to attempts to gather more information.

It owns three sites in Tibet, which generate nearly half of the company’s revenue, said Dhondup Wangmo, a research fellow at the Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamsala, India.

mining expansion

Mining and mineral exploration have increased dramatically on the Tibetan Plateau since 2006 following the arrival of the Golmud-Lhasa rail link and Chinese government programs and promotion.

With this has come increased pollution and destruction of grasslands, prompting Tibetan protests over the damage done to the environment and local livestock.

An increase in Chinese government mining activities in the Gyama valley of Meldrogunkar began in the 1980s and has produced valuable resources such as gold and copper for products that benefit China’s economy, said a Tibetan from the area who now lives in the exile.

“But it has come at the cost of environmental degradation and the relocation of Tibetan nomads who grazed their animals there,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.

“The forced settlement of nomads is a policy that the Communist Party of China has been pushing for years in Tibet,” he said.

Increased mining activity also created pollution and polluted water sources that killed animals that drank from them, he said.

“Tibetans in the region have protested over the years; many have been arrested and many also jailed,” said the Tibetan.

Operations at a Gyama copper and gold mine were the scene of a catastrophic landslide that killed 83 people, mostly Chinese immigrant workers, in March 2013, drawing attention to the toll that mining and industrialization were taking. in tibet.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.