7th Missing Miner Found Dead in Flooded Burkina Faso Mine

Reuters
By Reuters
June 10, 2022Africa
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7th Missing Miner Found Dead in Flooded Burkina Faso Mine
A view shows one of the galleries during a rescue operation inside Perkoa mine where water is still being pumped out in Perkoa, Burkina Faso, on May 13, 2022, four weeks after a flood trapped eight miners inside the galleries. (Anne Mimault/Reuters)

OUAGADOUGOU—A seventh dead body of a miner missing from a Burkina Faso zinc mine owned by Trevali Mining Corp. that flooded on April 16 was discovered on Wednesday and search teams are continuing to look for an eighth, the government said in a statement.

Hopes of finding any survivors vanished last month when rescue teams found no one inside a refuge chamber in which there was a slim chance eight miners who did not manage to resurface might have sought shelter.

Burkina Faso government said earlier on Wednesday that the two remaining bodies had been recovered, but issued another statement later to rectify the information.

The Perkoa mine was flooded after torrential rain fell unexpectedly during the West African country’s dry season.

Four bodies were found on May 24 and another two four days later.

Both the government and Canada-based Trevali have opened investigations into the incident.

The eight victims were six Burkina Faso nationals, one Tanzanian and one Zambian.

By Thiam Ndiaga and Anne Mimualt

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