[Vnbiz] Illegal miners suffocate in Vietnamese shaft

[Phan, Tai]

Illegal miners suffocate in Vietnamese shaft 

    October 19 2006 at 09:00AM  
 
Four illegal gold miners in central Vietnam suffocated in a shaft, probably killed by fumes from a diesel generator, an official said on Thursday.

The bodies of three brothers and another man, aged 25 to 42, were recovered on Tuesday from the 300-meter long tunnel in Tam Lanh village in Quang Nam province, said village official Pham Van Dung.

Fumes from the diesel-run generator used to run the drill may have caused the men to suffocate, he said, citing an initial police investigation.

The tunnel was part of a 365 hectares mine the Vietnamese government already licensed to a joint venture between a local company and an Australian firm, Dung said.




Local authorities have launched several crackdowns against the illegal gold miners in 2006, but some 50 of them were still operating illegally in the area, he said.

Dozens of illegal gold miners have been killed in collapsed tunnels in recent years in Quang Nam province, some 850 kilometers south of Hanoi.

Sapa-AP