More than 50 people are feared dead following a landslide in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township, an area that is renowned for its jade deposits and safety issues related to the industry, according to reports. An article in Frontier said that the landslide occurred on the evening of April 22, and that employees from two companies, Myanmar Thura Gems Company and Shwe Nagar Koe Kaung, were buried. Local parliamentarian U Tin Soe told Reuters that 54 workers were trapped when the earth collapsed. “They won’t survive. It is not possible because they are buried under mud,” he said. Paul Donowitz, campaign leader for Myanmar for Global Witness, called on the government to hold companies operating in Hpakant to account. “Mining companies are placing profit before people and causing needless deaths as a result,” he told Frontier. Landslides in Hpakant happen on a fairly regular basis, and are often the result of waste from the mines being dumped on mountainsides.