A collapse that occurred on Thursday within the, the largest copper site in the world, has left a dead person and five trapped workers. Codelco, the state company in charge of the extraction of metal and the largest world supplier of this product, has said that the rescue work of trapped miners have intensified and that the next 48 hours will be key to addressing the emergency. The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, has sent the condolences to the family of the deceased worker and has indicated that his administration has arranged all the resources to contact the trapped.
Local media have reported that the president has suspended a visit to the Biobío region, in the south of the country, to follow the details of the rescue operation. , the Chilean president has sent condolences to the family of the deceased person and has said that his administration will work to rescue missing workers. “From the Government we have arranged from the first minute all the resources and efforts in the search for the five workers with whom there is still no contact. I have instructed the Minister of Mining, Aurora Williams, to be in the area to coordinate on the field all the necessary actions. We will do everything within our reach to find them,” he said.
My most felt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Paulo Marín Tapia, worker of the company Salfa Montajes, who held work in the Division El Lieño de Codelco and unfortunately died in an accident in the mine. To their loved ones and …
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric)
The cupriferous has detailed that the incident has occurred on Thursday, July 31 at 5:34 p.m. (Santiago de Chile time) in sector 7 of the Minera task, where the Andresita project was developed. The company has explained that the sliding has been caused by an earthquake of 4.2 occurred in the division of the mine, which is located in the O’Higgins region, 120 kilometers south of the Chilean capital.
An initial report said that six workers resulted in injuries of various gravity, a figure that soon rose to nine. The operators have been transferred to the company’s hospital. During midnight, the company has confirmed the death of Paulo Marín Tapia, a worker from the external company Salfa Montajes, who served in the work.
In the early hours of Friday, it has been confirmed that five other workers were missing. The construction company Gardilcic, where employees worked, has revealed the identity of the trapped: Moisés Pávez Armijo, Gonzalo Núñez Caroca, Alex Araya Acevedo, Jean Miranda Ibaceta and Carlos Arancibia Valenzuela. During the first hours after the collapse, various information and speculations about the supposed death of these people were crossed, but in the morning it has been clarified that those affected were caught. The state mining company has clarified that the location of the workers is known, but that rescuers have failed to make contact with them.
The General Manager of Division El Teniente, Andrés Music, has said at a press conference that the next two days will be key to finish the successful rescue operation. “We know exactly where they are and we are currently doing rescue work to reach their location (…) but we have not had contact with them,” he said. Music has also admitted that this accident is one of the most serious of the last decades and has compared this accident with the collapse of the San José de Atacama mine in 2010, which affected. “The event that we recorded yesterday is one of the greatest that the Lieutenant has had in decades,” said the division manager.
Regarding the causes of landslide and rock, Codelco representatives have affirmed that in a preliminary way it would be associated with the seism registered in the vicinity of the mine, and not to the detonation of explosives inside the mine. The Minister of Labor, Giorgio Boccardo, has said that the review of the case will be in charge of the National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin), which together with the Directorate of Labor will determine the possible violation of labor protection protocols. “Whenever accidents of this type are produced, we must effectively determine if everything that happens in the labor field is in order,” said the minister in an interview with Radio ADN.
The El Teniente division is located 50 kilometers east of the city of Rancagua, in the O ‘Higgins region, in the central area of Chile, near the Andes mountain range. The mine, which has 4,500 kilometers of tunnels underground, is exploited by Codelco. From this site where around 350,000 fine metric tons (TMF) of copper per year are obtained, being the division of the coupriferous that delivers the largest contribution of red metal.
