Updated at 7:22 pm ET — A Sierra Leone government official says the report of a gold-mine collapse in that nation was a complete fabrication, in short, a hoax.

We have a new post with details.

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At least 200 miners were killed in a landslide at a Sierra Leone gold mine, according to Reuters:

FREETOWN, March 19 (Reuters) - At least 200 people were
killed in a cave-in at an unofficial gold mine in Sierra Leone,
the West African country's Ministry of Mineral Resources said on
Friday.

The accident occurred in the south of the country, about 180
miles (290 km) from the capital, Freetown.

Here's a Google map of the portion of West Africa where Sierra Leone is located.


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And here's information on the Sierra Leone economy from the CIA World Factbook. The essential facts are that Sierra Leone is very poor and a lot of people subsist from extracting minerals both legally and illegally.

Sierra Leone is an extremely poor nation with tremendous inequality in income distribution. While it possesses substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources, its physical and social infrastructure is not well developed, and serious social disorders continue to hamper economic development. Nearly half of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing consists mainly of the processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market. Alluvial diamond mining remains the major source of hard currency earnings accounting for nearly half of Sierra Leone's exports. The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad, which is essential to offset the severe trade imbalance and supplement government revenues. The IMF has completed a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility program that helped stabilize economic growth and reduce inflation. A recent increase in political stability has led to a revival of economic activity such as the rehabilitation of bauxite and rutile mining.