CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP)--At least 13 people, all illegal gold miners, were killed after a landslip, a source close to the company managing the opencast mine at Siguiri in Guinea said Thursday.
According to the source, who did not want to be named, the miners were caught by surprise and buried under earth at the mine run by SAG, a subsidiary of South African AngloGold Ashanti (AU), on Tuesday.
While SAG mines gold industrially at the site close to Guinea's border with Mali, thousand of illegal miners dig for gold with no security measures, and there were fears Thursday the death toll might rise.
Officials from SAG in the Guinean capital Conakry wouldn't confirm the death toll.
"We have heard that there were victims but for the moment it is no comment," one official said.
The illegal miners also clash frequently with police in charge of protecting the mine.
Earlier this week protests erupted in Siguiri against SAG but they were unrelated to Tuesday's accident.
Dozens of people set up barricades and blocked roads to protest power cuts which they blamed on SAG.
The demonstrators, mainly students, also complained that little of the mining wealth trickles down to the local population.
Guinea has vast mineral wealth with bauxite, iron, gold and uranium deposits, yet most of its nine million people live on less than a dollar a day.
In the last few weeks social unrest has been increasing with several protests around the country against the rising cost of fuel and the frequent power cuts.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 13, 2008 11:52 ET (16:52 GMT)

Publié le 13 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones