{"id":4046,"date":"2020-12-28T20:26:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T20:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=144114"},"modified":"2020-12-28T20:26:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T20:26:06","slug":"landslide-claims-13-lives-at-tolukuma-mine-in-pngs-central-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/28\/landslide-claims-13-lives-at-tolukuma-mine-in-pngs-central-province\/","title":{"rendered":"Landslide claims 13 lives at Tolukuma mine in PNG\u2019s Central province"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Tolukuma-mine-PNG-Ramu-680wide.png\" data-caption=\"Tolukuma mine ... landslide disaster. Image: Ramu Minewatch\"><\/a>Tolukuma mine &#8230; landslide disaster. Image: Ramu Minewatch<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><em>By Harlyne Joku in Port Moresby<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A huge landslide has buried a long hut with 13 people asleep inside at the foot of the Tolukuma gold mine in Papua New Guinea\u2019s Central province.<\/p>\n<p>The community from Saki village, Tolukuma, experienced the massive landslide yesterday morning between 4.30 am and 6 am amid heavy rain.<\/p>\n<p>They were surprised to see that the long house built for visitors from nearby villages who come and reside there while panning for gold had disappeared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have sent a message to the Central Provincial Disaster Office to assist with a chain saw and excavator to dig and cut through the trees, logs and dirt to uncover the house and search for the people buried by the landslide,\u201d Saki village spokesman Cyril Samana told the <em>PNG Bulletin<\/em> by phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot do it ourselves with our bush knives because the slide has buried many of trees and logs too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe disaster occurred at about 4.30 am while the people were asleep. The landslide caught them by surprise coming down from the nearby Tolukuma mountain,\u201d Simana said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the people buried were from nearby villages panning for gold during the Christmas weekend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018Huge landslide debris\u2019<\/strong><br \/>\u201cWe woke up to see the huge landslide debris and the long house disappear. We have informed the disaster authorities and waiting for them to arrive possible tomorrow [Tuesday],\u201d Simana said.<\/p>\n<p>Simana said that since the Tolukuma mine was in operation in the early 1990s and 2000s, the ground on Tolokuma mountain had become soft.<\/p>\n<p>He said the recent heavy rain in the afternoon till early morning may be the cause of the massive landslide burying the 13.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-53346 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Tolukuma-mine-map-PNGReport-500wide.png\" alt=\"Tolukuma mine map\" width=\"500\" height=\"206\" \/>A map showing Tolukuma in Papua New Guinea\u2019s Central Province. Image: PNG Bulletin\/PNG Report<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully when the Disaster Office arrives, we will start clearing and digging,\u201d Simana said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have not been able to get through to the MP for Goilala or the Governor for Central. But we managed to reach the provincial disaster office,\u201d Simana said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"printfriendly pf-alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2020\/12\/29\/landslide-claims-13-lives-at-tolukuma-mine-in-pngs-central-province\/#\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/printfriendly-pdf-button.png\" alt=\"Print Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2020\/12\/28\/landslide-claims-13-lives-at-tolukuma-mine-in-pngs-central-province\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tolukuma mine \u2026 landslide disaster. Image: Ramu Minewatch By Harlyne Joku in Port Moresby A huge landslide has buried a long hut with 13 people asleep inside at\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[851,393,5,1099,1100,635,4,12,366,1101],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4047,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions\/4047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}