LUSAKA - At least 10 small scale miners have been confirmed dead while seven others are nursing injuries when a mine collapsed on them, police said on Wednesday.

The accident happened in the morning at a slug dump, Black Mountain, in Kitwe city on the Copperbelt Province where the small-scale miners, commonly known as Jerabos, operate from.

Copperbelt Province Police Commissioner Charity Katanga said 10 small-scale miners have been confirmed dead while seven others were injured.

She said the accident happened when an excavator operating on top of the slug dump collapsed on the small-scale miners on were below.

However, other sources have been the death toll at over 20.

Phoeby Chileya, spokesperson at Kitwe Central Hospital told local media that the hospital received 10 people who were brought in dead while seven others were in critical condition, with one admitted in the Intensive Care Unit with serious head injuries.

Mining operations at the slug dump have raised concerns from stakeholders because of the unsafe operating mechanisms, with some calling it a disaster in waiting.

But Minister of Mines and Minerals Development Richard Musukwa recently assured that operations at the slump dump were not a disaster in waiting.