All five workers trapped at a copper mine in Chile have been found dead, according to a regional prosecutor, after rescue teams cleared more than 24 metres (78 feet) of underground passages that collapsed in a strong earthquake last week.
Prosecutor Aquiles Cubillo of the O’Higgins region said on Sunday that the body of the fifth trapped worker had been found at the El Teniente copper mine.
More than 100 people had been involved in the search for workers at the El Teniente copper mine, the world’s largest underground mine, in Rancagua, about 100km (62 miles) south of Santiago.
“We deeply regret this outcome,” Cubillos said.
The latest death brings the total toll from the accident to six, including one person who died at the time of the incident on Thursday evening.
Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco discovered the first trapped worker on Saturday and another three on Sunday. It has not yet commented on the final worker.
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.
Minister for Mining Aurora Williams announced the temporary cessation of activity at the mine on Saturday.
The mine 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 – was not yet known, the authorities said on Saturday. 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,” Andres Music, the mine’s general manager, said in a statement.
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.
Aerial view of El Teniente copper mine, where a collapse killed five trapped workers underground [Esteban Felix/AP]
