By Joshua Carroll

YANGON, Myanmar

At least nine miners have died while at least 20 others remain missing following a rockslide in Myanmar’s notorious jade-mining region of Hpakant, state media reported Wednesday.

The report in the Myanmar Alinn newspaper, published three days after the tragedy, said the miners were sifting for jade on a 300-foot high mound of earth and rocks when it partially collapsed. 

Five bodies were found Monday morning and another four later in the day, the report said. Rescuers were still searching for the missing miners, it added.

Fatal landslides are common in Hpakant, a town in conflict-torn northern Kachin state. Four miners died in a similar accident in January.

Frantic mining activity in the area has attracted crowds of workers who pick through the rubble left after mines are excavated in hope of finding pieces of jade.

Hpakant’s illegal jade industry is estimated to be worth around $8 billion a year, with much of the demand coming from across the border in China.

The vast majority of the world’s jadeite, a much-coveted form of the mineral, is mined in Hpakant.

But the industry is woefully under-regulated and miner deaths are common, despite sweeping political and economic reforms that began in 2011 when the long-ruling military junta installed a new government.