Seven missing after DR Congo mining accident: company

Seven people were missing after an accident Tuesday at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga province, mining giant Glencore said.

The statement from Switzerland-based company said “a geotechnical failure on the north wall” of the copper and cobalt mine in the southern province caused the accident.

“We understand that seven persons, who were believed to have been working on the ongoing dewatering of the pit in the vicinity of the failure, are currently unaccounted for,” it added.

Glencore said the authorities had been notified, a search and rescue operation was underway and that the relatives of those missing were being contacted.

The company — which has scaled back its global operations in an effort to ease a mountainous debt burden — said some of the mine’s infrastructure is likely to have been damaged.

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