Illegal gold mine collapse in Colombia kills 14, with more miners reported missing

At least 14 workers have been killed in the collapse of an illegal gold mine in southwestern Colombia. Local authorities reported the toll on Monday. Seven other people were wounded in the accident.

The accident took place in the rural Chambero sector of the Santa Barbara de Iscuande municipality, in the province of Nariño. Officials said the mine had been operating informally.

Nariño Governor Luis Alfonso Escobar said search and rescue operations have concluded. However, Jorge Tovar Castillo, a disaster response official in Nariño, said an additional 12 to 15 miners have been reported missing following the accident.

Tovar Castillo said municipal authorities were handling the response, but added that communication had been difficult, hampering the work.

Santa Barbara de Iscuande is surrounded by dense rainforest and can only be reached by boat or small aircraft. That remoteness makes a fast and full response after such accidents especially hard.

In a message on X, Governor Escobar described the gold mine as an 'informal' mine — in other words, one operating outside formal approval and regulation.

Informal and unregulated mining is common in rural parts of Colombia. Operations of this kind often lack adequate safety infrastructure, leading to frequent fatal accidents.

'At this moment our priority is to save lives, accompany families and guarantee an opportune response to this painful tragedy,' Escobar wrote on X.

Mine accidents are not new in the region. In August, 13 people died in a similar mining accident in the town of Policarpa, also in Nariño.

Local authorities and relatives are now waiting for fuller information about the missing miners and about what caused this latest collapse.