3 feared dead in mining accident

Mererani. Three people are feared to have died after a pit collapsed at the JW mine, which is owned by   TanzaniteOne here in Simanjiro District.

According to the information made available to The Citizen, the victims entered the pit illegally on March 7, this year.

Manyara regional police commander Francis Massawe told The Citizen that his office was informed about the accident yesterday at around 2:30 pm. He said one of  the survivors gave the information to police about the incident.

“One of the suspects who escape from the collapsing pit reported the matter at our police station. He said his three colleagues had been buried in the pit,” he said.

According to the RPC, those buried in the pit have been named as Saidi Mgosi and other two who were simply identified as Khalid and Dominic. 

He said Mgosi and Khalid are resident of Boma Ng’ombe while Dominic is a resident of Mirerani Township.

“He told us that they entered the JW mine site without permission from the TanzaniteOne‘s authority,” he said.

According to Mr Massawe, police and TanzaniteOne are striving to rescue them or recover their bodies.

He added that so far the rescue team had recovered a machine which was used by the victims and that the search was continuing.

TanzaniteOne acting director general Modest Apolinary said the victims were not employed by the company and that they had entered the site illegally. 

According to Mr Apolinary, JW mine site has been out of operations since August last year.

“The said the victims entered there illegally and stayed for five days. Then tragedy struck,” he said.

He said his company  was cooperating with police with the assistance of the survivor to rescue the three or recover their bodies.