4 small-scale miners killed in tunnel blast in Compostela Valley
TAGUM CITY, Philippines—At least four small-scale miners were killed following an explosion inside a gold mine tunnel in Maragusan, Compostela Valley on Wednesday, hospital records on Thursday said.
The victims apparently died after inhaling toxic fumes following a dynamite blast in an adjacent mine shaft in Barangay (village) Pamintaran around 8:30 p.m., records from the Davao Regional Hospital (DRH) here showed.
Hospital records identified the victims as Nestor Agui, 27, of the Island Garden City of Samal; Rocky Bayer, 19, of Zamboanga Peninsula; Jimmy Cailan, 48, of Pamintaran; and Emmanuel Casanova, 32, of Barangay Paloc, also in Maragusan.
According to DRH records, the four miners were working inside the shaft owned by a certain Josel Mamac when a powerful blast went off in a nearby tunnel, sending noxious fumes into their tunnel, suffocating them.
Police and local officials said they have not received confirmation of the fatal mining accident, however.
Hundreds of makeshift tunnels honeycomb the gold-rich Pamintaran, one of Compostela Valley’s known minerals-rich mountain villages where more than 50,000 people dig for gold for a living.
The area is about 100 kilometers south of the more popular Mt. Diwalwal, which holds one of Asia’s biggest gold mineral reserves.
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