The 2013 Gyama Mine Landslide occurred on 29 March 2013 at about 06:00 local time (March 28, 2013 at 22:00 GMT). 83 people were trapped in the Gyama Mine (甲玛矿区) in

Maizhokunggar County Maizhokunggar County or Meldro Gungkar County is a county of Lhasa and east of the main center of Chengguan, Tibet Autonomous Region. It has an area of with an average elevation of over . Most of the people are ethnic Tibetan and are engaged i ...

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The mining area is situated about 70 km east of

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

and has an altitude of about 4600 m. The landslide was about 3 km long and between 20 m and 50 m thick, with a volume of about 2 million cubic meters. Among the 83 people, 2 are ethnic Tibetans and the rest are ethnic Han, most of them from the Provinces of

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

, and

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

. As of April 5, 66 bodies have been found. The Gyama Mine is operated by Huatailong Mining Development (华泰龙矿业开发公司), a subsidiary of the China National Gold Group Corporation (中国黄金集团), a state-owned enterprise and the country's largest gold producer. The operation of the Gyama Mine by China National Gold Group Corporation had been reported as eco-friendly and praised as a model for development by Chinese media. Criticisms over possibly excessive mining in Tibet flashed in China on the internet before they were deleted or blocked. According to the experts of the Department of Land and Resources of China, four factors caused this mine disaster. First, the site of the landslides is located in a very steep V-shaped valley. Second, Tibet has a very complex geological condition, and there are a lot of neotectonic activities. Third, the area experienced several snowfalls in March 2013 after an extreme dry period between November 2012 to February 2013, and the infiltration of water from the melted snow decreased the stability of the slope. Fourth, the process of the landslides is that the accumulation body in the back lost its stability, started the slip, and pushed the accumulation body in the front, and thus was formed the overall slip.

References

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landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

Mining disasters in China Gyama Mine landslide Tibet Autonomous Region Gyama Mine landslide Gyama Mine landslide