Search continues for remaining workers trapped at world’s largest underground copper mine after partial collapse.
The death toll from the partial collapse of the world’s largest underground copper mine in Chile has increased to two people, the mine operator has said, after human remains were found during a search for five trapped workers.
Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco said on Saturday that human remains had been recovered in the search at El Teniente mine in Rancagua, some 100km (62 miles) south of Santiago.
Codelco did not identify whose remains were found.
“We know this news hits the families of our colleagues and our entire mining community hard,” Andres Music, the mine’s general manager, said in a statement.
“This discovery fills us with sadness, but it also shows us that we are in the right place, that the strategy we followed led us to them,” he said, adding that search efforts would continue.
At least 100 people have been involved in the perilous search, according to mine operators.
The miners had been working at a depth of more than 900 metres when the collapse happened, killing one colleague and halting operations at the site. Their exact location had been pinpointed with specialised equipment.
“We will do everything that is humanly possible to rescue the five trapped workers,” Codelco’s president, Maximo Pacheco, said during a news conference on Friday afternoon.
“All of our experience, all of our knowledge, all of our energy and all of our strength are dedicated to this cause and to seeing this through,” he added.
Temporary closure
Minister for Mining Aurora Williams earlier announced the temporary cessation of activity at the mine, which began operating in the early 1900s and boasts more than 4,500km (some 2,800 miles) of underground tunnels.
Last year, El Teniente produced 356,000 tonnes of copper – nearly 7 percent of the total for Chile.
The cave-in happened after a “seismic event” on Thursday afternoon, of which the origin – natural or caused by drilling – is not yet known, according to authorities. The tremor registered a magnitude of 4.2.
“It is one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, that the El Teniente deposit has experienced in decades,” Music said.
The search team included several of the rescuers who participated in successfully surfacing 33 miners trapped in a mine for more than two months in the Atacama Desert in 2010, attracting a whirlwind of global media attention.
Chile is the world’s largest copper producer, responsible for nearly a quarter of global supply, with about 5.3 million tonnes in 2024.
Its mining industry is one of the safest on the planet, with a death rate of 0.02 percent last year, according to the National Geology and Mining Service of Chile.
It also lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that surrounds the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
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