fire broke out in a small gold mine in southern Peru on Saturday, killing 27 people, according to official figures. The incident, as per Reuters, is the nation’s single-deadliest mining accident in more than two decades.
In a statement, the local government said that preliminary findings have established that the cause of the blaze was a short-circuit, which reportedly occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning in the southern region of Arequipa.
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Images clicked by local media from the scene showed thick, dark plumes of smoke rising from the mine.
Talking to local media on Sunday, local prosecutor Giovanni Matos said that: “It’s been confirmed by the Yanaquihua police station, there are 27 dead.”
The mine is operated by a small-scale company called Yanaquihua.
For Peru, which is the world’s largest gold producer and second-largest copper producer, this incident as per data from the nation’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, is the single-deadliest mining incident since 2000.
The previous highest toll occurred in 2002 when 73 people died in different mining accidents. In 2022, mining accidents in Peru caused 38 fatalities, underscoring safety concerns in Latin American mining.