Four workers were killed while many others are still missing following the collapse of a mine tunnel of the local subsidiary of U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan in eastern Indonesia's Papua Province early Tuesday, local press reported Wednesday. "Fourteen workers have been evacuated from the tunnel until Wednesday morning with four men dead,"Tito Karnavian, chief of the Papua Regional Police Command, was quoted by Indonesia's news portal metrotvnews.com as saying.

At least 40 workers were in the tunnel when the accident happened at 07:30 a.m. local time Tuesday and the cause of the accident is still unknown, it said.

Freeport Indonesia has reported the incident to Indonesian government authorities, including the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Production at Freeport Indonesia's Grasberg mine where the tunnel collapsed was not expected to be significantly affected, according to local media.

The Grasberg mine which started its production in the 1970s holds the world's biggest gold and second-biggest copper deposit, employing more than 20,000 people.

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