Six people died behind the abandoned gold mine in Jiangxian County, Shanxi: deadly illegal "gold panning"
Six people were found dead in Liceyu, Jiangxian County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi.
According to official sources, the victims were all from Song County, Henan Province. They were found at a depth of about 2,700 meters in an abandoned mine. The police are currently investigating.
CCTV News reported that a preliminary investigation by the police revealed that the victims used the method of "washing holes" to make illegal profits in the closed gold mine.
On December 27, a local villager told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that the gold mine was several kilometers long and that someone had come to dig secretly before.
According to other media reports, local village officials stated that the government closed the mine in 2018, and 6 people entered the mine through holes in the mine.
Public reports showed that Jiangxian officials had deployed a severe crackdown on illegal mining and digging five days before the incident.
The Paper combed through news and found that there have been many cases of gold mine pirates who died due to lack of oxygen in the cave or poisoning by “washing the cave”.
Five days before the incident, the local deployment severely cracked down on private mining and indiscriminate digging
The Jiangxian People’s Government reported at 18:45 on December 27. Jiangxian Public Security Bureau received a report from Li from Henan at 3:54 on the 27th, stating that around December 23, 2021, six people from Henan arrived. Lost contact after a suspected mine on Ceyu Mountain in Jiangxian County.
After several hours of searching, at about 15:40, six missing persons were found at a depth of about 2,700 meters in the abandoned mine.
At about 17:40, after diagnosis by on-site medical staff, all six persons had no vital signs.
At present, Jiangxian County Party Committee and County Government have set up special work teams to do their best to deal with the aftermath.
The public security agency is filing a case for investigation.
According to CCTV News, a preliminary investigation by the police revealed that the victims used the method of "washing holes" to make illegal profits in the closed gold mine.
CCTV News previously reported that Liceyu is located in the Zhongtiao Mountains, the source of the Sushui River, with high mountains and deep valleys. There are mineral resources such as copper, gold, and silver in the territory. There has been a phenomenon of illegal mining of mineral resources. Later tended to be orderly.
On December 27, a local villager told The Paper that there are many mines in the area. The mine that happened was a gold mine. It was a few kilometers long. Someone had come to steal the mine many times before. After 6 people lost contact, they didn’t. Few villagers went up the mountain to participate in the search.
The Beijing News@我们视频 reported that a village official at the site of the incident introduced that the abandoned mine was a gold mine. Illegal mining occurred before. In 2018, the government closed the mine and 6 people were from the mine. Enter while hitting a hole.
Relevant departments conducted a safety inspection on the cavity of the incident on December 19, and no abnormalities were seen.
The Paper noted that five days before the incident, on December 22, Jiangxian County held a special operation arrangement meeting to severely crack down on illegal theft of mineral resources.
At the meeting, Jiangxian County Government Deputy Magistrate Guo Xiaowei requested that all departments at all levels should deeply learn from the painful lessons of Xiaoyi’s “12·15” illegal mining of coal resources that caused the flooding accident, severely crack down on illegal mining, and resolutely ban illegal production. , Crack down on illegal acts that destroy and steal national resources, form a high-pressure situation of safe production, and ensure the safety of national resources and the lives and property of the people.
Deadly gold rush: "hole washing" poisoning and death happen from time to time
The above-mentioned local villagers told The Paper that the so-called "washing holes" refers to washing gold mines, using water to dissolve sodium cyanide and other chemicals to wash the gold out of the ore. In this process, poisonous gas is generated, which is a high-risk method.
The Paper combed through news and found that there have been many cases of illegal gold mining thief who died due to lack of oxygen or "hole washing" poisoning.
Among them, there is a case in Jiangxian County.
An indictment from the Jiangxian County Procuratorate of Shanxi Province published on 12306 China Procuratorate in 2020 shows that in late September 2019, multiple defendants used several nights to go to a gold mine in Simougou Village, Jiangxian County, and used iron. Rakes, hammers, iron dustpans and other tools raked open the joint closed openings of Jiangxian and Quwo county governments, entered the mine and installed generators, water pumps and other equipment to extract the water in the mine in preparation for theft of gold ore Work.
On the evening of September 26, 2019, a number of defendants drove together to Simogou, Haomou Township, Jiangxian County, and entered the mine to check the drainage of accumulated water. Due to poor ventilation in the mine, one person died of suffocation due to lack of oxygen.
A criminal judgment issued by the court of Songxian County, Henan Province published by China Judgment Documents website shows that on one day in February 2015, 13 people jointly negotiated during the 2015 Spring Festival to go to the Houshan Zhongjin Company in Sansanchang Village, Dazhang Town, Song County. Sodium cyanide is used to wash the gold in abandoned mining caves.
On the evening of February 21, 2015, the three persons in charge of the caregiver fainted due to poisoning when they entered the cave for inspection. After hearing the news, other personnel went into the cave to rescue people, resulting in three deaths and several rescuers who were poisoned and hospitalized.
Another criminal judgment issued by the Songshan District Court in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, shows that on August 24, 2016, Dai, Ren, and Wang were in the No. 6 mining area of Chifeng Yongfeng Mining Co., Ltd. located on the Lianhua Mountain in a district of Chifeng City. In the abandoned middle section of the roadway, he died of cyanide poisoning during the process of using cyanide to extract gold.
Only when he and other mine personnel went down to the 0 middle section to check the situation of Dai and others, he died of cyanide poisoning.
On the same day, others called the police.
Investigators seized 50 bags (25 kg/bag) of cyanide at the scene of the accident, of which 12 bags have been used up.
According to the "Beijing News" report, on July 6 this year, three people died of poisoning in an abandoned mine in Zazagou Mountain, Jianli Village, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province.
A person familiar with “washing holes” said in an interview with the Beijing News that washing holes is mainly aimed at some tailings and waste mines with low gold content. The surplus value on the gold mine is exhausted. Although the toxicity is dangerous, the benefits are still considerable.
On December 27, an expert in the field of ecological environment restoration in the mining area introduced to The Paper that the owners of abandoned gold mines have poor ventilation and insufficient oxygen, which may also cause suffocation and death.
In addition, abandoned mines are prone to accumulation of water, causing the shafts and roadways to easily collapse.
How to manage abandoned mines to prevent similar incidents from happening?
"The main problem is management." The expert suggested that local openings should be closed to prevent personnel from entering.
The Paper, reporter Zhu Xuan, Yu Yan and Liao Yan