60 people dead , 100 missing in landslide in northern Myanmar

A landslide occurred near a jade mine in Myanmar’s Kachin state on Saturday, ABC News reported citing local community leader Lamai Gum Ja.

The debris landslide destroyed about 50 houses nearby, and more than 100 people are still missing, he said. Dozens of huts at the site were also buried.

It is the latest deadly accident to affect Myanmar’s secretive multi-billion-dollar jade industry in war-torn Kachin.

Landslides are common in the area as people dig across perilous mounds trying to find valuable jade, the newspaper said.

Myanmar’s jade industry is extremely opaque and much of the jade that is mined in Hpakant is believed to be smuggled to neighboring China where the stone is highly valued.

While Myanmar’s official tariffs include a 20 percent value-based tax on jade at mine sites and 10 percent on sales from government sources, according to Global Witness, the state received less than $374 million in official jade revenues in 2014 – less than 2 percent of the estimated output value. Local people complain of various abuses associated with the mining industry, including the frequency of accidents and land confisations.

The area has been turned into a moonscape of environmental destruction as huge diggers gouge the earth looking for jade.

Industrial-scale mining by big companies made Hpakant “a dystopian wasteland where locals are literally having the ground cut from under their feet”, said Mike Davis.