[1] The Nambija mining settlement is located in the southeastern part of Ecuador, high up in the mountains, in Zamora-Chinchipe Province, about 30 km east of Zamora, close to the Peruvian border.

The air is damp and full of toxic fumes from the mining process, making Nambija one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

[2] This is due to the fact that violence and crime rate were very high, understandably, if you consider 10.000 people living on a patch of land about 1 square km in size.

(The link to the Houston Chronicle which used to be here is dead and was thus removed) A lot of the homes doubled as entrance shacks to the mines, and people working in there were buried.

Still, apart from the catastrophic living and working conditions, the events of this single day represent one of the worst mining disasters ever, and remain virtually unknown due to the remoteness of the site.