NEED TO KNOW
- One person is dead and five people are trapped after a mine collapsed following an earthquake in Chile, according to the company operating the mine
- The mine, located in the Andes Mountains, collapsed after a 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck the region on Thursday, July 31
- Among the miners on site were 33 people who were trapped for 69 days in a separate mine in the Atacama Desert that collapsed in 2010
One person is dead and five people remain trapped after a mine collapsed in Chile.
The mine collapsed after the U.S. Geological Survey recorded an earthquake near where the El Teniente mine is located, just after 5:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, July 31, according to The New York Times and The Associated Press.
The National Copper Corporation of Chile, also known as Codelco, said in a series of Spanish-language statements that one person, Paulo Marín Tapia, died after a 4.2 magnitude earthquake impacted the work site.
Nine people who were working on the Andesita project at the El Teniente mine sustained non-life-threatening injuries, while five more workers were trapped inside the mine, Codelco stated.
The five miners are still trapped as of Friday, Aug. 1, according to the latest release shared by Codelco.
At a press conference, El Teniente’s General Manager Andres Music said, the tunnels inside the mine “are closed” after they “collapsed” following the earthquake, according to Reuters. “There’s no possibility of even radio communication,” he added.
Additionally, Music said, aftershocks from the earthquake have made it impossible for rescuers to reach the trapped workers. He added the quake was “one of the largest events — if not the largest — that the El Teniente mine has experienced in decades.”
“We are making every effort to try to rescue these five miners,” said Music, per the AP. “The next 48 hours are crucial.”
Music said around 100 rescue workers were at El Teniente when the earthquake struck, according to the Times. Among them were 33 miners who were trapped for 69 days in a mine located in the Atacama Desert in 2010.
Union leader Amador Pantoja said copper extraction operations have stopped at El Teniente in the wake of the collapse, but noted that Codelco is still operating its concentrator and smelter, according to Reuters.
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The El Teniente mine is considered the world’s largest underground copper operation, according to Mining.com. It has been operating since 1905, and spans over 4,500 kilometers (about 2,800 miles) of tunnels and underground galleries in the Andes Mountains.
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