At least 17 people are feared dead after a landslide trapped dozens of workers inside a Myanmar jade mine, sources and local media said on March 1.

The incident came on the evening of February 28 near Hpakant township in northern Kachin state – the same region where a massive landslide in 2020 entombed 300 workers in the country’s worst ever mine disaster.

Pictures of the scene showed the aftermath of the landslide, with a broad swathe of brown earth and rock covering the pockmarked side of a hill.

A local source said “17 bodies were found so far”, but AFP was unable to independently confirm these figures.

The source added that the mine’s owners – Yangon Technical and Trading Co, a firm linked to the country’s military which took power last year in a coup that sent the country into turmoil – had so far prevented rescue teams from entering the area.

Local media and sources in the area said that 40 people were buried in the landslide, which struck around 10:30pm (1630 GMT).

Dozens die annually while working in Myanmar’s highly lucrative but poorly regulated jade industry, which uses low-paid migrant workers to scrape out a gem highly coveted in neighbouring China.

Jade and other abundant natural resources in the country’s north – including timber, gold and amber – have helped finance both sides of a decades-long civil war between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the military.

Civilians are frequently trapped in the middle of the fight for control of the mines and their lucrative revenues, with a rampant drug and arms trade further curdling the conflict.

“The workers’ rights in jade mines are never ensured by law – whenever they die in a landslide, they get a small compensation in the end,” said one local environmental activist, who declined to be named.