Codelco Works to Rescue Two at El Teniente
One worker was rescued after an October 11 mudslide at El Teniente. Two were located, with no operating suspension disclosed in the initial statement.
by Dominic Rhee2 min read
Codelco was working to rescue two workers after an October 11 mudslide in an open-pit section of its El Teniente copper mine, according to Bloomberg's October 11 report, which cited a company statement. A third worker had been rescued and taken to a medical facility. Codelco attributed the incident to severe weather affecting central Chile.
The initial company statement reproduced by Emol on October 11 says emergency actions began immediately and resources were being directed to the rescue. It does not announce an operating suspension, give a restart timetable or estimate lost copper output. For you if you own copper miners, that leaves the rescue confirmed and the production effect unquantified. We cannot extend an accident in the open-pit sector into a shutdown of the entire division, or assume the rest of the mine kept operating.
This is a separate accident from Codelco's October 1 fatality at Radomiro Tomic. In its October 1 Radomiro Tomic statement, Codelco said a mechanic died during maintenance in the crushing and material handling area, where activities were immediately suspended. That release identified the affected operating area. Sunday's El Teniente statement describes the rescue without specifying an interruption. The Radomiro Tomic suspension gives us no basis to describe El Teniente's operating status, and neither statement supplies a companywide production estimate for these events.
El Teniente was already producing less copper before Sunday's mudslide. In first-half results released August 28, Codelco reported that the division's output fell 27% from the first half of 2025, attributing the decline to restrictions following the July 2025 accident. We followed those constraints in Codelco Moves Safety to Its Top Office. We are looking for evidence of whether this new surface incident adds to the constraints that reduced output earlier in the year. It measures an earlier reporting period, so it cannot tell us how many tonnes Sunday's mudslide might affect.
Does this change the supply case for the copper miners you own? The next operating update needs to connect the affected area to production: what work has stopped, whether other areas can operate safely and whether Codelco changes its output plan. A safe continuation or resumption of work would reduce the risk of another interruption. A disclosed restriction affecting production would give us grounds to revisit supply expectations. The scale and duration of any restriction would determine how much copper is affected; a rescue update alone cannot supply either figure.
By October 12, we will look for Codelco's next rescue update and any disclosed operating restrictions or production change at El Teniente.
Seek the truth and be prepared,
Equedia News
Sources
- Bloomberg, Codelco Races to Save Two Workers After Mudslide at El Teniente Copper Mine, October 11, 2026
- Emol, Codelco statement on the El Teniente mudslide and rescue, reproduced October 11, 2026
- Codelco, Radomiro Tomic accident statement, October 1, 2026
- Codelco, First-half 2026 results, August 28, 2026
- Equedia News, Codelco Moves Safety to Its Top Office
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