Tibetans are among workers who have been buried in a large mining accident in Tibet. On March 31, 2013, Phayul.com reported, Two Tibetan among 83 Buried Workers. On Friday morning a major landslide hit a mining area in Medro Gungkar near Lhasa burying 83 workers. Reports which have come from Tibet said that two of the buried workers were Tibetan while other workers are believed to be ethnic Han Chinese.
These miners worked for a subsidiary of the China National Gold Group Corp, which is a state-owned enterprise and China’s largest gold producer. More than 1000 rescuers, including police, firefighters and medical personnel have been working at the site, and 200 large vehicles and equipment and sniffer dogs are being used in the rescue, according to state-run China Central Television. It has been reported that about 2.6 million cubic yards of mud, rock and debris swept through the area as it covered an area measuring around 1.5 square miles.
China’s new leaders, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, have ordered to use all efforts to rescue the buried workers. It was stated in an official press release issued by the Environment and Development Desk (EDD) of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile that it fears that this tragic incident could be a result of the aggressive expansion and large-scale exploitation of mineral in the Gyama Valley. The press release said that this is a “man-made phenomenon rather than just a ‘natural disaster."
