Three miners killed in Tanzania's Lake Zone mine collapse

Three artisanal miners were killed and one survived in the collapse of a small-scale gold mine in Tanzania's Lake Zone region of Geita, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.

Geita Regional Commissioner Fatma Mwasa told Xinhua in a telephone interview that the accident occurred on Monday night when the miners were inside the mine pit popularly known as Onesmo mine site.

The mine site is located few kilometers from Geita Township, the headquarters of one of Tanzania's gold-richest regions, possessing substantial deposits, minimally exploited by large scale and small scale miners.

The commissioner said inside the mine there were four people when the mine collapsed and one person managed to escape.

She said earlier investigation shows that the tragedy might have been caused by heavy rainfall that heavily hit the mineral- rich area.

"We are struggling to remove the body of the dead trapped in the collapsed mine," the RC said, adding that the killed miners were working deep in the mine pit.

Mwasa, who is also the chairperson of regional security committee, said Lake Zone mine experts have started investigating the cause of the accident particularly on how the structure of the mine pit were constructed to the extent that rainfall made it to collapse.

Geita region has the potential for more mining by both small and large scale miners. In most of the time, small-scale miners in the area have been using crude technology hence ends them into trouble as most of the time they fall prey of accidents. Endi