Landslide at Myanmar jade mine kills12 people

HPAKANT , Myanmar, May 24 (UPI) -- Rescue efforts continue at a jade mine in Kachin state, Myanmar, after 12 people died and about 100 more went missing after a landslide, officials said Tuesday.

The landslide in the town of Hpakant, the center of northern Myanmar's jade mining, came after days of heavy rains. Mining in the area, where much of the world's highest-quality jade is found, is stopped by the annual monsoon season, but individuals, including those killed or missing, harvest scrap jade from piles of waste rock left by large-scale mining firms.

"Hand-pickers were still digging there. That is very risky, U Tin Soe, a Parliament member from Kachin, said.

The area mines produce billions of dollars in jade, most of it exported to China. The poorly regulated industry accounted for $31 billion in trade in 2014, the activist group Global Witness said, or about half of Myanmar's gross domestic product. It added that little of that money goes to taxes or to miners.

A 2014 landslide in Hpakant killed 120 people searching for scrap jade.