Chile's Codelco gets regulatory approval to reopen part of El Teniente copper mine
People hold a helmet during the funeral of Jean Miranda Ibaceta, one of the five miners of Chilean state-run copper producer Codelco who died after being trapped following a collapse at El Teniente copper mine, at a cemetery in Rancagua, Chile August 4, 2025. REUTERS/Pablo Sanhueza/File Photo
SANTIAGO - Copper giant Codelco has received approval from Chile's mining regulator to reopen a part of its flagship El Teniente mine, after more than a week of suspended operations following a deadly collapse that killed six workers, it said on Friday.
Chile's labor inspection office needs to sign off on the plan before El Teniente can resume mining activity, Codelco said in a statement. It did not say when it expects final approval or when operations may restart.
The state-run company aims to restart in a number of sectors of the mine, excluding those affected by the July 31 accident, pending further analysis.
A major tremor that day caused tunnels to collapse around the new Andesita section of the vast mine, which contains the world's largest underground copper deposit.
The mining regulator said the approved areas show no damage or imminent risk, and instructed Codelco to monitor seismic activity and comply with operational guidelines.
"Sernageomin emphasized that the restart of operations must be carried out under strict safety standards, prioritizing the protection of worker lives," Codelco said.
The labor inspection office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Earlier, Codelco said it had suspended contracts with third-party workers at El Teniente through at least August 13.
Aquiles Cubillos, the prosecutor for the O'Higgins region where El Teniente is located, has said the collapse damaged about 3,700 meters (3.7 km) of passageways, far more than 700 meters initially estimated by the company.
He has not specified the severity of the damage, but said it affected two or three areas of Andesita, and five or six areas of the Recursos Norte unit.
El Teniente, which is more than a century old, spans more than 4,500 km (2,800 miles) of tunnels and underground galleries - nearly the distance between Chile and New York - deep within the Andes mountains.
On Friday, Cubillos' team inspected four damaged levels of the mine, excluding those where the injuries and deaths occurred, and met with Codelco technical experts. Investigators are documenting the damage with photographs to later reconstruct a full map of the affected areas. REUTERS
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