Sudan Gold Mine Collapse Kills at Least 82 as Dozens Remain Missing

Rescue workers at the informal al-Zara mine have been searching interconnected shafts with little machinery, exposing the human cost of Sudan’s largely artisanal gold industry.

At least 82 people have died after interconnected shafts collapsed at an informal gold mine in Sudan’s West Kordofan region. Dozens of workers are still reported missing.

The Associated Press reported the latest count, citing a local administration official and a member of Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms. Both said rescue workers had recovered 82 bodies by Wednesday afternoon.

The disaster occurred at the al-Zara mine near Nuhud, in territory controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The collapse began in one shaft and spread through other connected workings, according to the local official.

The death toll is not yet final. Earlier reports gave lower figures as rescue workers recovered more bodies. The number of people inside the mine also remains uncertain. For now, “at least 82” is therefore more accurate than a definitive final count.

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Rescuers are working with almost no heavy equipment

The scale of the collapse has overwhelmed the limited rescue capacity available in the remote area.

A survivor told AP that workers lacked machinery to remove soil and rock at depths of more than 30 metres. A local official said the recovery team had access to only one privately owned forklift.

The mine extended across more than a kilometre of fragile, sandy ground, according to the Kordofan Observatory monitoring group. With multiple shafts connected underground, a failure in one section could spread into neighbouring workings and trap miners across a much larger area.

Initial reporting from Reuters put the death toll at no fewer than 60. The higher figure reported later reflects the continuing recovery of bodies, not a separate accident.

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Why artisanal gold mining is so dangerous

Artisanal and small-scale mining provides income for large numbers of Sudanese families, particularly as war has destroyed jobs, displaced communities and weakened the formal economy. But much of the work takes place outside effective regulation and without professional engineering or emergency support.

Informal miners commonly dig narrow shafts and tunnels with limited geological assessment, ground reinforcement or ventilation. Workers can be exposed to unstable soil, sudden flooding, falling rock, and toxic chemicals used to separate gold from ore.

At al-Zara, the Sudan Doctors Network said the site lacked basic safety and protective measures. The consequences were made worse by the absence of specialist rescue teams and excavation equipment.

The tragedy is not an isolated incident. AP reported that a mine collapse killed 38 people in Sudan in 2021, while another collapse killed 14 miners in 2023. More recent accidents have continued during the country’s war.

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Gold is a lifeline and a source of conflict in Sudan

After South Sudan separated in 2011, Sudan lost most of its oil revenue and became increasingly reliant on gold. The metal now supplies essential foreign currency and supports the livelihoods of miners, traders and their families.

A separate Associated Press investigation into Sudan’s gold economy reported that the country produced about 70 tonnes in 2025, according to official figures. Artisanal and small-scale operations account for most of that output.

Yet the same decentralised system that allows people to earn a living also makes safety enforcement, production tracking and taxation difficult. Large volumes of gold leave formal channels, while miners often accept extreme risks because few alternative sources of income remain.

Research from Chatham House found that Sudan’s official gold production had exceeded 80 tonnes a year before the war, before collapsing during the first months of fighting and then recovering through a fragmented wartime economy.

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The mine sits inside a wider war economy

Sudan’s conflict began in April 2023 after a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces developed into full-scale war. West Kordofan is among the regions where armed control, mining and trade routes overlap.

The al-Zara mine is located in an area controlled by the RSF. That fact is relevant to understanding the absence of effective state oversight, but it does not establish who owned the mine or received its production.

A United Nations Panel of Experts report previously found that the RSF controlled much of Sudan’s gold trade and used proceeds from the gold business across its commercial network. Gold revenues and smuggling have also become part of the broader conflict economy surrounding both sides of the war.

In July 2026, the European Union introduced restrictions on buying, importing, or transferring Sudanese gold, arguing that the trade was helping to finance the conflict. The measures also restricted exports of mercury and cyanide to Sudan because the chemicals are widely used in gold processing.

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Will the collapse affect international gold prices

The direct effect on the global gold price is likely to be limited.

Al-Zara is an informal mining site, and there is no verified production figure showing that it supplied enough gold to materially change the global market. Even a prolonged closure would be unlikely to alter worldwide mine output on its own.

Its importance is instead human and structural. The disaster shows how part of the world’s gold supply is produced by workers operating beyond the protections normally associated with industrial mines, often in countries where economic survival, armed conflict and mineral extraction have become inseparable.

The contrast with formal, capital-intensive mining projects is significant. GoldRates recently examined a 30-year agreement involving Venezuela’s Choco gold mine, where the central questions were investment, operating rights and future production. In Sudan, the immediate issue is whether miners have even the equipment and oversight required to return home safely.

Readers following the wider market can view GoldRates live gold prices, but this tragedy should not be reduced to a short-term price narrative.

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What happens next

Recovery teams are continuing to search for missing workers, and the confirmed death toll may rise as more of the collapsed workings become accessible.

The immediate need is for excavation machinery, trained rescue personnel, medical assistance and support for affected families. Longer term, the disaster renews questions about shaft construction, site registration, inspections, protective equipment and emergency response across Sudan’s artisanal mining sector.

Those reforms will be difficult while the country remains divided by war. But without them, high gold prices and economic desperation are likely to keep drawing workers into mines where a single structural failure can become a mass-casualty event.

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Casualty figures may change as recovery operations continue. GoldRates has used the highest count independently reported by a major news organisation at the time of publication and has identified earlier figures where relevant.