Chile’s El Teniente mine collapse leaves five miners dead

AFP

4 Aug, 2025 01:01 AMQuick Read

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El Teniente mine collapse in Chile kills five as final body recovered on Sunday. Photo / Getty Images

A rescue operation in Chile at the world’s largest underground copper mine ended on Sunday with no survivors, as the body of a fifth missing miner was found days after a tunnel collapsed, officials said.

“Today we finally found [dead] the last of the missing workers,” Aquiles Cubillos, prosecutor for
Chile’s O’Higgins region, told reporters.

Operations at the El Teniente mining centre had been suspended since Friday after a “seismic event” caused the collapse of a tunnel the day before, trapping the five miners inside.

Whether the cause of the shaking was due to an earthquake or drilling remains under investigation.

El Teniente, which is operated by the Chilean state-owned mining firm Codelco, boasts more than 4500km of tunnels and is the largest underground copper deposit in the world.