Deadly landslides during Myanmar’s rainy season from May to October frequently bury informal scavengers, or handpickers, who scour large piles of earth for jade, production of which stood at US$31 billion (RM125 billion) in 2014, advocacy group Global Witness says.

Small-scale miners who flouted repeated warnings in their search for jade at a defunct mining site were buried by muddy earth that slid off a cliff on Monday, said Kyaw Swar Aung, the administrator of Hpakant in Kachin State.

Six backhoes were brought in on Tuesday to help with the search in the village of Ma Mone, said fire brigade official Aye Thein.

“We could not perform the search when it happened, since we did not have the machinery,” he said.

Those trapped had come from nearby villages to pick through tailings for jade, he said. Experts say most of the stones are smuggled to neighbouring China.

About 100 people are estimated to have died in landslides this year in the Hpakant area, said Dashi La Seng, a lawmaker for the ruling National League for Democracy. A large landslide on July 14 killed at least 15 people and injured 45.