Two artisanal miners died and one was seriously injured in two separate accidents on Saturday, police said yesterday.

One man was killed and one sustained serious injuries while working for a Chinese mining company at Kbal Damrei commune in Kratie province’s Sambor district.

“A man died and another one was seriously injured because the rope tied to his body was cut and they fell into the mine shaft,” Chhin Sambo, Sambor district deputy police chief, said.

Sambo could not confirm the name of the Chinese company.

Song Sopheak, police chief in Battambang province’s Phnom Prek district, said another victim, Chea Sam Eoun, 29, was digging in a family-run gold mine with three others near the Cambodia-Thailand border when the mine collapsed, killing him.

“They did not work for companies . . . They found the mine on their land and knew there was gold under the ground,” he said.

Song Sopheak added that the land where they were digging is soft with a lot of mud, and the victim had dug down about 4 metres.

“The soft land will easily collapse. The three men were lucky that they could escape and climbed up,” Sopheak said. “At first, we could not find the dead body since he was under the ground since 2:30pm. But we found the body . . . at midnight.”

Song Sopheak said there are not many villagers looking for gold mines since the authorities warned them about the dangers, but there are a few still mining illegally.