At least 14 dead after gold mine collapse in Venezuela’s El Callao

At least 14 people have been confirmed dead after torrential rains triggered a collapse in a gold mine in El Callao, southeastern Venezuela, authorities said on October 13.

According to officials, cited by foreign media, a command post was established to coordinate recovery operations for the victims, led by Brigadier General Gregory González Acevedo, who heads the Operational Zones for Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis (ZOEDAN) in Bolívar state.

The fatalities occurred across three different shafts of the Cuatro Esquinas de Caratal mine, located in the mining town of El Callao, approximately 850 kilometres (528 miles) southeast of Caracas, authorities said in a statement published on Instagram.

Rescue teams began work by pumping water out of the flooded mine shafts in order to lower water levels and assess conditions for entering the site to recover trapped miners, the statement added. 

Local firefighters said the current death toll was based on the accounts of other miners who witnessed the collapse. They explained that flooding from the recent heavy rains caused the failure of the vertical mining tunnels, locally known as “ravines.”

El Callao, a town whose economy depends almost entirely on gold mining, has around 30,000 residents, most of whom are engaged directly or indirectly in the extraction of the precious metal.

Venezuela’s vast mineral-rich regions—home to deposits of gold, diamonds, and copper—have long been plagued by unsafe working conditions and minimal government oversight, making mining accidents tragically common in the country’s poorly regulated industry.

By Tamilla Hasanova