According to sources familiar with the case, Copper veteran Kodelco, owned by Chile’s kingdom, is seeking approval for less than a week after less than a week after a few weeks of his leading L Tenant mine.
The accident, which began with a 4.2-fumigation seismic incident last Thursday (31 July), stopped production in the world’s largest underground copper mine.
Kodelco has formally requested Chile’s National Geology and Mining Service (Sernajomin) to allow the mine to be partially reopening, pending acceptance of safety and technical evaluation, two sources told Reuters.
The cave-in, which was triggered by the earthquake, was underground over 900 meters and five miners were initially implicated.
His body was recovered for several days by a rescue team of more than 100 people, including the 2010 San Jose Mine rescue veterans of Chile. The body of a sixth mine, who was killed at the time of collapse, was first recovered.
“We regret this result deeply,” O’Higins region prosecutor Aquiles Cubillo said on Sunday, confirmed the final recovery. He did not give any additional details on the cause of collapse, which is under investigation.
Operations in L. Tenant were formally suspended by the Geology and Mining Agency of Sarnejomin, Chile, immediately after the incident.
This instructed Kodelco to submit four comprehensive technical reports before any restarts are authorized. Reports must be included: analysis of the cause of collapse, a recovery plan, evaluation of current fortification systems and a comprehensive structural evaluation.
While underground mining has stopped, Kodelco has maintained limited activity in L. Tenient. The company is operating the ongoing maintenance in processing plants and smelters, including operations in the smelter’s anode furnaces every two hours to keep important equipment in operational conditions.
Kodelco stated that it had responded to three separate information requests from the Labor Inspector of Sernezomin and Chile, but also said that it could not estimate the financial or operational effect of suspension yet.
Investigation on safety standards
Mining Minister Arora Williams ordered a temporary termination of activities in the mine over the weekend. Meanwhile, the Minister of Energy and Mining Diego Pacheko said on Sunday that Kodelco will do an international audit to understand an international audit of whether it went wrong.
“We are going to start an international audit to determine what we have done wrong,” Pacheko said. While no formal complaints were received about the safety conditions of the site, he vowed that a complete investigation and proper corrective measures were going on.
In Andes Mountains, L. Tenant, located about 100 km south of Santiago, is the cornerstone of the operation of Kodelco and the mining economy of Chile.
It produced 356,000 metric tonnes of copper in 2024, which was about 7 percent of the total production of the country. The mine has worked for more than a century and has a maze of over 4,500 kilometers (2,800 mi) tunnels.
Earthquaker phenomenon that triggers relatively light, while the collapse by global standards. Questions have been raised about the structural integrity of the old sections of the mine and the adequacy of the current fortification systems.
A blow for expansion efforts
This accident is a significant shock for Kodelco as it attempts to promote production after years of modernizing the infrastructure of its aging and promoting production.
The collapsed area is believed to be part of the endsita section of the mine, which is a relatively small but strategically important component of the wider expansion of L. Tenient, including Andes Norte and Diyamte projects.
Andesita development aims to offer the decline in older regions and help maintain output levels through the next decade. It will be likely to disintegrate through Kodelco’s project pipeline, which is already under pressure due to rising costs.
Although Chile claims one of the world’s safest mining regions – a deadly rate of just 0.02 percent in 2024 – the string of events on Kodelco sites has equally concerned with unions and regulators.
The 1945 fire remains in the industry’s worst accident El Tenant, with 355 miners killed and stands as one of the deadliest mining disasters in history.
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Securities disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, no direct investment in any company mentioned in this article is interested.
