Codelco has reassigned 1,817 of the 2,460 workers tied to suspended activities at El Teniente, about 74 percent, according to figures disclosed by the division’s general manager, Julio Diaz, at a hearing before Chile’s Senate Mining and Energy Commission and reported by BioBioChile via Mining.com. The fate of the remaining 643 workers remains unresolved, and Codelco has not announced a date for restarting the suspended work, which depends on further technical evaluations of seismic conditions.
Work at the Andes Norte expansion was suspended in August after technical assessments identified seismic hazards at depth that differed from the risks the company had previously identified and monitored. Safety concerns at the division intensified this month when two workers died after a snow avalanche struck a small open pit area at the operation. Codelco faces criminal, regulatory and technical investigations into the earlier collapse at the mine, while its internal inquiry into the precise cause remains ongoing.
The hearing was not a routine update. Union representatives challenged the completeness of Codelco’s disclosures, demanded more information about safety protocols, internal investigations and contractor working conditions, and alleged that workers remained at the plant for an hour and 15 minutes after this month’s accident. One union leader told the hearing that contract workers deserve the same respect, protection and commitment to safety as any Codelco worker. Lawmakers also questioned the adequacy of the information presented and called for further investigations.
The pressure is not confined to El Teniente. At the Ministro Hales mine in northern Chile, covered on this site on October 27, workers blocked access for about six hours on Monday over unpaid bonuses following a serious workplace accident, a dispute the Federation of Copper Workers tied directly to safety. Taken together, the two operations show a state miner whose constraint is now workforce trust and regulator confidence.
For copper supply, the near term effect is an expansion delayed, not current production lost, and no output figure has been published for the suspension. The decision points are the technical evaluation of seismic conditions at Andes Norte, the treatment of the 643 unrelocated workers, and whether the Senate scrutiny produces new operating conditions for the division.