A rescue operation in Chile on the world’s largest underground copper mine ended Sunday (August 3, 2025) with no survivors, because the physique of a fifth lacking miner was found days after a tunnel collapsed, officers mentioned.
“Today we finally found [dead] the last of the missing workers,” Aquiles Cubillos, prosecutor for Chile’s O’Higgins area, advised reporters.
Operations on the El Teniente mining heart had been suspended since Friday after a “seismic event” brought on the collapse of a tunnel the day earlier than, trapping the five miners inside.
Whether the reason for the shaking was as a consequence of an earthquake or drilling stays underneath investigation.
El Teniente, which is operated by the Chilean state-owned mining agency Codelco, boasts greater than 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) of tunnels and is the biggest underground copper deposit on the earth.
Last yr, it produced 356,000 metric tonnes (over 392,000 tons) of copper — almost seven p.c of the entire for Chile.
Chile’s mining trade is taken into account among the many most secure on the earth, with a fatality price of 0.02 p.c in 2024, in response to the National Geology and Mining Service of Chile.
