Authorities said on Wednesday that a man who had been stranded by a landslip for many days had been freed from a copper mine in Zambia.
Last Friday, debris obstructed an open-pit mine in the nation’s Copperbelt Province, trapping 38 individuals who were there illegally. Although they have not yet been recognised, two bodies have been recovered thus far.
A survivor was discovered on Tuesday night, according to a statement from Zambia’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit. He is in the hospital at the moment and is speaking with officials, but no information about his condition has been released.
It stated, “A 49-year-old man who was trapped with several other miners has been rescued from the collapsed mine slug dump site in Chingola.”
The owner of the pit apparently had no idea that miners had been breaking the law by illegally looking for copper ore at night, making it difficult for officials to pinpoint the precise number of persons trapped inside the tunnels.
“As of right now, the families of about 38 people have come to claim that they are missing,” Copperbelt Province Minister Elisha Matambo stated.
Hakainde Hichilema, the president of Zambia, visited the mine on Tuesday and expressed optimism that additional survivors will be discovered.
Hichilema declared, “Our commitment is to do everything to save the lives that are down there.” “We have to rescue our people from the pit.”
Zambia ranks among the world’s top 10 producers of copper. Long, open-pit mines that span km can be found in the city of Chingola; many of them are encircled by substantial heaps of removed rock and dirt.
The government claims that the disaster that occurred last week was brought on by trash pile material falling into the mine’s passageways.
