“Nicaragua gold miners trapped after cave-in” - 29 August 2014 

Rescue workers in Nicaragua are trying to reach at least 24 workers trapped by a cave-in at a gold mine…Local officials said two miners had managed to dig themselves out after a mine shaft collapsed due to heavy rain…Rescuers using dogs located 20 of the 24 miners…but said they had been unable to free them…"Twenty of them are in a safe place and have asked for food and water," government spokesman Rosario Murillo told local media…The area has seen lots of heavy rain in recent weeks and two miners died after a landslide there last month. Hemco, the Nicaraguan subsidiary of Colombian miner Mineros SA, said it had condemned the area where the miners are trapped after inspectors recently found it to be unsafe…[and that] the miners who are trapped are freelancers who had continued to work there despite the company's warnings after two miners died last month in a landslide caused by heavy rain. A company spokesman said that although the freelancers were not employed by Hemco, they were allowed to operate in areas controlled by them if they agreed to sell any gold they find to the firm. The freelance form of mining is legal in Nicaragua…to enable more people to profit from the industry.