Dozens still missing after Indonesian landslide leaves 17 dead

A injured victim of a landslide is attended to in Suwawa (BASARNAS via AP)

Dozens of people are missing after a landslide triggered by torrential rains crashed onto an unauthorised gold mining operation in Sulawesi, Indonesia, killing at least 17 people, officials said.

More than 100 villagers were digging for grains of gold on Sunday in the remote Bone Bolango district in Gorontalo when tons of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried their makeshift camps, said Heriyanto, head of the Search and Rescue Office.

Rescuers recovered six more bodies buried under tonnes of mud in a devastated hamlet where the gold mine is located.

“Improved weather allowed us to recover more bodies,” said Heriyanto, who goes by a single name, like many Indonesians.

According to data released on Tuesday by his office, some 52 villagers managed to escape from the landslide, about 23 people were pulled out alive by rescuers, including 18 injured, and 17 bodies were recovered, including three women and a four-year-old boy. A total of 45 others are missing.

The landslide hit an unauthorised gold mining operation on Sulawesi, killing several miners, officials said Monday (BASARNAS via AP)

National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said torrential rains that have pounded the area since Saturday also broke an embankment, causing floods of up to 3 metres (10 feet) in five villages in Bone Bolango.

Nearly 300 houses were affected and more than 1,000 people have fled for safety.

Informal mining operations are common in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to thousands who labour in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death.

Landslides, flooding and collapses of tunnels are just some of the hazards facing miners.

Much of gold ore processing involves highly toxic mercury and cyanide, and workers frequently use little or no protection.

The country’s last major mining-related accident occurred in April 2022 when a landslide crashed into an illegal traditional gold mine in North Sumatra’s Mandailing Natal district, killing 12 women who were looking for gold.

In February 2019, a makeshift wooden structure in an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi province collapsed due to shifting soil and a large number of mining holes.

More than 40 people were buried and died.