Slope collapse at gold mine leaves at least 12 dead in Nariño, Colombia

The incident occurred on the afternoon of August 19, in the village of Puerto Rico, a remote area within the municipality of Policarpa, said Gabriel Ocaña, Nariño’s director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD)

Colombia’s National Mining Agency (ANM) reported 13 deaths and 7 injuries in an August 20 statement. Meanwhile, Ocaña revised the toll to 12 deaths and 5 injuries after the recovered bodies were reviewed, Naracol Noticias reported on the same day.

“All of the trapped people were recovered,” Ocaña reported. Seven of those killed were men and five were women. He added that the injured were taken to hospitals in the area for treatment.

“The situation was handled by the community. Two excavators were available, and they were used to search for the people who were missing,” he said.

Four Indigenous members of the same family from the Quillasinga people were among those killed, according to local residents.

ANM said preliminary information indicated that illicit gold extraction was allegedly being carried out at the site using heavy earthmoving machinery. According to the agency, the work destabilized the terrain and caused part of the slope to collapse, but ANM had not announced the completion of a technical investigation.

The municipality of Policarpa is located in northeastern Nariño, about 95 km (59 miles) from Pasto, in a mountainous and difficult-to-access area where the Franco Benavides column operates. The group is part of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), the largest dissident faction of the former FARC guerrilla organization.

ANM said its Mining Safety and Rescue team coordinated with local authorities and emergency agencies during the response. In a May 7, 2026 statement, the agency reported 494 mining emergencies between 2022 and 2026, including 273 involving legal operations and 221 involving illicit activity.

This comes less than ten days after a major earthquake registered by the USGS as M7.4 hit Chocó, Colombia, at 12:34 UTC on August 10.

Major M7.4 earthquake hits Chocó, Colombia, leaving 329 dead and 234 missing

References:

¹ ANM is supporting the affected families in Policarpa, Nariño – ANM– August 20, 2026

² More than ten killed in gold mine collapse in Nariño: four members of one family among the victims – Noticias Caracol – August 20, 2026