Rescue experts who participated in the emblematic rescue of the 33 miners in 2010 joined the search operation for five missing workers after a collapse at the El Teniente mine, located in central Chile, this Friday. The accident occurred on Thursday afternoon and also left one worker dead and nine others injured.
The mine, operated by the state-owned National Copper Corporation (Codelco), has faced harsh criticism from workers and unions, who denounce poor working conditions and a series of incidents in recent years. In front of the entrance of the site, in the town of Machalí - about 130 kilometers south of Santiago - family members and employees of contracting companies have gathered, hopeful for a successful operation like the one in 2010 that rescued 33 miners alive in Copiapó after 69 days trapped.
"The specialized high-risk work team is in full coordination with the rescue brigades of the El Teniente Division to reach the location where the five missing individuals might be," explained subprefect Juan Reyes Gutiérrez to the press.
The causes of the collapse have not yet been officially confirmed. The initial hypotheses suggest that the collapse may have been triggered by a seismic event generated during a drilling operation in the underground sector known as Teniente 8, at a depth of 1.2 meters.
