A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar killed at least one person, injured 25 others, and left scores missing on Wednesday, according to France 24.
Thousands of people die each year while working in the lucrative but poorly regulated jade sector, which employs low-wage migrant workers to scrape out a jewel that is highly prized in China.
The accident occurred at a mine in Kachin state's Hpakant township, near the Chinese border, where billions of dollars of the valuable mineral are said to be scrubbed off bare slopes each year.
According to rescue team member Ko Nyi, "about 70-100 inpiduals are missing" as a result of the landslide that struck around 4:00 a.m. (2130 GMT Tuesday).
"We've taken 25 inpiduals to the hospital and found one person deceased."
Hundreds of diggers returned to Hpakant during the wet season to prospect in the dangerous open-cast mines, despite a junta ban on digging until March 2022, according to a local activist.
"They mine at night and tip out the earth and rock in the morning," the activist explained, adding that the increased weight has caused the land to sink into the lake.
The weight of spilled soil and rock had also pushed the land downhill into the lake, according to Ko Nyi of the rescue team.
He claimed that some 200 rescuers were working to recover bodies, with some using boats to look for the deceased in a nearby lake.
The military restricts access to the mines in the distant north of the country, and internet service is spotty.
The landslide claimed the lives of 20 miners, according to the Kachin News Group.
Personnel from Hpakant and the nearby town of Lone Khin were part in the rescue attempt, according to Myanmar's fire services, although no numbers of dead or missing were given.
Jade, as well as other abundant natural resources such as timber, gold, and amber in northern Myanmar, have aided both sides in a decades-long civil struggle between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the military.
Civilians are regularly caught in the middle of the battle for control of the mines and their lucrative income, and the violence is exacerbated by a thriving drug and arms trade.
Heavy rains caused a major landslide in Hpakant last year, burying roughly 300 miners.
Global Witness, a watchdog group, estimated that the sector was worth $31 billion in 2014.
However, corruption ensures that relatively little money reaches the state coffers.
According to a study released this year by watchdog Global Witness, a February military coup effectively ended any possibility of reforms to the risky and unregulated business launched by ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's government.
According to Global Witness, the coup has ignited combat between local insurgents and the Myanmar military in Kachin state.
In May, the military initiated air strikes against the militants, who later informed AFP that after heavy confrontations in the country's far north, they had shot down a helicopter gunship.
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