Collapse at Chile's major copper mine kills one worker and leaves 5 missing
Nine other mine workers suffered injuries, said Chile's National Copper Corp., known as Codelco, describing the incident as the result of "a seismic event."
The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 5 earthquake in an area of central Chile where Codelco's El Teniente mine is located, at 5:34 p.m. local time on Thursday. Codelco reported the tremor had a magnitude of 4.2.
Authorities said they're still investigating whether it was a naturally occurring earthquake or whether mining activity at Codelco's flagship El Teniente mine caused the quake. Chilean prosecutors also launched a criminal investigation to determine whether any safety standards were violated.
Chile's national disaster response service, Senapred, said that the tremor struck the Machalí commune in the O'Higgins region, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the capital, Santiago.
Codelco identified the deceased as Paulo Marín Tapia and said he had been working on the Andesita project, a new 25-kilometer (15-mile) tunnel complex extending from the El Teniente mine on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains. That expanded section had only recently started to produce copper.
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