Chile’s state-run copper miner Codelco has temporarily halted an expansion project in the Andes Norte unit of the El Teniente mine over concerns of seismic risks, the company said on Tuesday.
A collapse a year ago at El Teniente, the world’s biggest underground copper mine, killed six workers.
Codelco said its analysis over the past six months shows that the mine faces risks unlike those that had been previously known and monitored at the mine, and that it was putting its expansion works on hold to ensure worker safety.
“The available evidence is consistent with the possible existence of an emerging risk associated with the greater depth of the Andes Norte project,” Codelco said in a statement.
“Among the factors being considered are the need to strengthen instrumentation, monitoring and technical analysis to address the challenges involved in the future development of deep mining.”
Newspaper La Tercera originally reported on Codelco’s plans to put the expansion project on hold.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Fabian Cambero, Editing by Iñigo Alexander)
