A devastating landslide triggered by heavy rains has forced the closure of the open-pit section of Chile’s El Teniente copper mine, leaving two contract workers dead and another injured. The incident occurred shortly before 2:00 p.m. on Sunday as employees from Aura Ingeniería SA were carrying out routine inspections in the south pit. While rescue teams managed to extract one survivor and rush them to a nearby medical facility, they later recovered the bodies of two men, aged 34 and 53.
Codelco, the state-owned giant that operates the flagship site in the Andes Mountains, quickly moved to suspend activities in the affected area to ensure worker safety. However, this latest tragedy comes at a precarious time for the company, marking the second major disaster at El Teniente in just over a year. It follows a catastrophic rock burst in July 2025 that claimed six lives after a seismic event tore through underground tunnels, an accident that crippled production levels and sent shockwaves through Chile’s economy.
The recurring instability at El Teniente is part of a broader struggle for Codelco, which has seen production plunge nearly thirty percent earlier this year due to mounting geological risks. With additional deaths recently reported at the Radomiro Tomic and Escondida mines, critics are questioning whether safety protocols are keeping pace with increasingly volatile conditions. These internal struggles are now coinciding with external threats from El Niño weather patterns, which risk bringing even more torrential rain to South America’s vital copper belt.