A devastating landslide at an unregulated artisanal gold mine in southern Colombia has left at least 13 workers dead and seven others wounded, according to announcements from local government authorities. The tragedy unfolded on Wednesday afternoon at the open-air mining site located near the town of Policarpa in Nariño Province, where dozens of local workers, the majority from the indigenous Quillacinga community, harvest small deposits of gold for their livelihoods.
Eyewitness accounts indicate that a loud explosion echoed through the site just moments before a section of the mine collapsed onto workers operating in the lower area of the excavation, trapping them under tons of earth and rock. First responders from regional emergency services, alongside local community residents, launched an immediate search and recovery operation. With the assistance of heavy excavator equipment, teams were able to recover all 13 deceased victims from the debris. Among the fatalities, four victims came from the same indigenous family, compounding the scale of loss for the local community.
Deadly industrial accidents are an ongoing, systemic issue in Colombia’s small-scale mining sector, particularly at unlicensed operations that operate outside of national safety and environmental regulations. Without any official government oversight, these informal mining sites lack basic safety infrastructure, emergency response protocols, and regular geotechnical inspections to mitigate landslide or collapse risks. An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 Colombians currently work in artisanal mining across the country, with many low-income and indigenous households relying entirely on income from selling extracted precious metals and gemstones to cover basic living expenses. Around 50 workers regularly accessed this particular unlicensed mine near Policarpa, per local resident estimates.