In a tragic update on a landslide at a key Solomon Islands gold mine, authorities have confirmed the recovery of one person’s body, with search operations set to continue amid unconfirmed reports of additional unaccounted-for people at the site. The disaster struck Monday at the open-pit Gold Ridge mine, located on Guadalcanal island, just a short distance from the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara, in the South Pacific.
Police confirmed Tuesday that the recovered victim is Ashley Olo, though officials have not publicly confirmed whether Olo was an official employee of the mining operation. Acting Police Commissioner James Aitorea added that Olo’s remains have already been returned to his family for burial. The landslide left a 100-meter stretch of the mine’s main access road destroyed, according to official police statements.
When the landslide first occurred, Prime Minister Matthew Wale told reporters that the government’s top priority would be determining the root cause of the disaster, particularly whether poor industry practices contributed to the tragedy. “Of interest to the government, of course, is to find out whether this was a result of poor mining practices and perhaps the need to strengthen regulations,” Wale said Monday, when no casualties or missing persons had yet been confirmed.
In an initial statement released the day of the slide, the mine’s majority owner, China-headquartered and Hong Kong-listed Wanguo Gold Group Ltd, claimed that none of its official employees were injured or missing, and that no mining infrastructure had sustained damage. The company added that commercial mining operations had already resumed shortly after the incident.
However, local media reports have raised questions about the presence of unregistered informal miners at the site, with multiple families reporting that their relatives who were working the mine illegally have not been contacted since the landslide. The Gold Ridge mine has a long history of controversy, dating back more than a decade. It was originally owned by an Australian mining firm, which sold off the asset in 2015 after public warnings that the site was at high risk of flooding and other geohazards. Since 2019, Wanguo Gold Group has held a majority stake in the operation, with local Solomon Islands landowners holding a small minority share. It remains the only large-scale commercial gold mine in the Solomon Islands. Past conflicts have already broken out at the site between local landowners, unregulated informal miners, and national law enforcement, long before Monday’s deadly landslide.
Authorities have stressed that search and rescue efforts will continue at the site until all potential missing persons are accounted for, even after the recovery of Olo’s body. The cause of the landslide remains unconfirmed as of the latest updates, with the government set to launch a formal investigation into industry practices at the mine.