All Five Miners Trapped in Codelco’s El Teniente Copper Mine Found Dead

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): According to Prosecutor Aquiles Cubillo of the O'Higgins district, all five miners who were trapped in a copper mine in Chile have been found dead. Following a powerful earthquake last week with a magnitude of 4.2, Codelco's El Teniente copper mine collapsed, trapping the workers.

The body of the fifth trapped worker was found Sunday. This brings the total death toll from the accident to six. One person had died at the time of the incident on Thursday evening. The miners had been working at a depth of approximately 900 metres when the collapse happened, which brought the site operations to a halt.

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In the process of searching the largest underground mine in the world, over 100 people cleared more than 78 feet of underground corridors. About 7% of Chile's total copper production, or about 356,000 tonnes, came from the El Teniente mine in the previous year.

The general manager of the mine, Andres Music, said in a statement that the tremor was among the largest to hit the El Teniente deposit in decades.

By the way, Chile produces around one-fourth of the world's copper, making it the top producer in the world. In 2024, the nation produced around 5.3 million tons of copper.