15 November, 2010
Re-emphasizing the immediate need for Chile to take complete regulatory overhaul of mine safety, two workers were killed and a third seriously injured on 8 November when dynamite was mishandled inside the Los Reyes copper mine.
The incident happened 60 kilometres northeast of Copiapó in the country’s northern Region II, a short distance from the San José mine, site of the dramatic rescue last month of 33 miners after 69 days underground.
Chile’s National Geology and Mining Service said the underground Los Reyes mine was new, unregistered, and operating illegally.
The two dead miners, one age 40, the other 26, were working their first full day inside the mine. The injured worker, a 21-year-old, suffered a head injury that likely will result in the loss of his left eye. Reportedly, old detonators reacted to heat and humidity and exploded prematurely.
The mine is owned by Sociedad Legal Compañia Minera Del Sur, a mining company that not much is known about except that it extracts copper from small deposits. A principal of the company, Mexican national German Statures Bazan, immediately fled Chile after the accident on a flight from Santiago to Argentina. Chilean authorities were seeking his capture.