(Updates casualty toll, adds rescue figure)

BEIJING, June 5 (Reuters) - At least 80 people were feared buried in a landslide at a southwestern Chinese iron ore mine, state media said on Friday.

Rescuers pulled seven injured people from the disaster site in Wulong county in Chongqing municipality, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"Millions of cubic metres of rock flooded a valley, burying an iron ore plant and six houses," it said.

China's mines are the deadliest in the world, due to lax safety standards and a rush to feed demand from a booming economy. More than 3,000 people died in coal mine accidents in 2008 alone.

Last September, a mudslide caused by the collapse of a mine waste reservoir in northern Shanxi province killed more than 250 people. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Edmund Klamann; editing by Richard Balmforth)

AlertNet news is provided by