Illegal miners killed in landslide near Freeport area

At least 12 illegal miners were killed when a landslide occurred in a steep hill near the mining area of PT Freeport Indonesia in Mimika, West Papua on Monday night, Kompas reported Wednesday.

The chief of the Mimika police Godhelp Mansembra said on Tuesday that the landslide which took place at about 10 p.m. on Monday following a heavy rain buried alive the victims.

He said that the victims mostly hailing from South Sulawesi conducted illegal mining activities at the copper and gold mining giant's tailing disposal site near the Agawagon river.

"They have been warned for several times not to carry out mining activities in the area, but the warnings were ignored," he said, adding that the police had asked the management of Freeport to use its heavy equipment to search for the bodies of the buried diggers.

Meanwhile Freeport's spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan said that the Agawagon river is the company's tailing disposal area. "The victims dug the tailing area to find gold deposits," he said, adding that they were killed not because of working accidents but due to natural disaster. ?They (the victims) weren?t Freeport?s employee,? he said. (*)