12 Indonesian gold miners killed, nine missing in landslide

At least 12 illegal gold miners were killed in a landslide in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua while nine other people were missing and feared dead, police and local media reports said Tuesday.

The accident took place late Monday when more than 20 locals were working in the remote Timika district at an illegal mining camp near the Grasberg gold and copper mine, the world's largest gold mine, operated by PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of the US-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.

Adjunct Senior Commissioner Godhelp, chief of the Timika police district, which is about 3,200 kilometres north-east of Jakarta, was quoted by DPA as telling the Jakarta-based Elshinta private radio station that 12 bodies had been recovered, leaving nine people still buried under tons of earth and industrial waste and feared dead.

Rescue workers, made up of police officers and local community members, were searching for the missing using traditional tools before heavy machinery from PT Freeport arrived at the scene Tuesday afternoon.