El Teniente Mudslide Traps Two Workers at Codelco’s Chilean Mine

A mudslide struck the El Rajo open-pit sector of Codelco’s El Teniente mine in central Chile on the afternoon of Sunday 11 October 2026, trapping a truck carrying three contractor workers. One has been rescued and taken to hospital. Rescue teams are still working to reach the other two.

The slide hit the same mine where six people died in a collapse in July 2025. Coverage links Sunday’s event to the heavy rain that has hit Chile’s central zone in recent days. The rescue was still underway at the time of writing, and key details remain unconfirmed.

Here is what is confirmed, what is not, and what the event could mean for copper supply if it spreads beyond a single pit road.

What we know about the rescue, hour by hour

Three workers from contractor AURA were driving a truck near ADIT 42 in the El Rajo sector when the mud came down. An adit is a horizontal entrance or access tunnel into a mine. El Rajo sits within El Teniente Division in Chile’s O’Higgins Region.

Codelco’s statement was relayed by Reporte Minero in a report published at 17:06 local time, with El Mostrador, Emol and Biobio Chile also carrying it. It gave the status of each worker:

• Worker one: rescued and moved to a medical facility
• Workers two and three: located inside the vehicle
• Rescue: a specialised operation to reach them was still underway

Codelco said emergency protocols were activated straight away.

Codelco’s position The company said it will keep committing all necessary resources to manage the emergency and protect its workers, and called safety a non-negotiable value in its operations.

No division-wide production suspension had been reported as of 11 October. Chile’s mining regulator, the National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin), had not announced a formal investigation either.

That tells you the event is being treated as a localised emergency for now. If that status changes later, read it as the first real signal of operational impact.

What remains unconfirmed

• The outcome for the two trapped workers
• The condition of the rescued worker
• Whether a formal investigation into the cause will follow
• Any effect on production

Why rain turns a pit road into a hazard

A mudslide can look like freak weather. In practice, it is one of the most predictable risks an open-pit mine faces.

Rain affects a mine in three main ways:

• Slopes: water soaks into pit walls and waste dumps and raises pore-water pressure, which is the pressure of water held in the gaps between soil and rock particles. Higher pressure lowers shear strength, which is the material’s ability to resist sliding.
• Runoff: concentrated water flowing along haul roads and drainage channels erodes embankments and undercuts retaining structures.
• Underground inflow: in tunnel networks like El Teniente’s, extra water can stress support systems and loosen fractured rock.

Contractor vehicles using access routes near benches, the stepped ledges cut into a pit wall, face the second risk most directly. The specific cause at El Rajo has not been formally established. Coverage does, however, attribute the slide to the intense rain in central Chile.

Mines usually respond by halting work on exposed benches, reinforcing drainage and pumping, and stepping up geotechnical monitoring with radar, inclinometers (instruments that detect ground movement) and piezometers (instruments that measure water pressure). Chile has a long record of short weather-related stoppages at Andean operations during extreme rain and snow.

Recent weather-related stoppages across Chilean copper operations show how quickly heavy rain and snow can interrupt output, even when the underlying mines remain structurally sound.

For you as a follower of copper news, weather disruptions in central Chile are a recurring risk to short-term output, not a one-off surprise.

El Teniente’s recent record: a collapse, a project pause and now this

Sunday’s slide is the third serious safety event at El Teniente in about 15 months.

On 31 July 2025, a rockburst inside the mine followed a nearby earthquake of about magnitude 4.2, with some reports putting it as high as 5.0. A rockburst is a sudden, violent failure of rock under stress. Six workers died and nine were injured. Codelco says operational restrictions after the accident cut El Teniente’s 2025 copper output by 13% to 310,000 tonnes.

Critics of the current oversight model point to enforcement gaps that surfaced after the 2025 rockburst, arguing that inspection capacity has not kept pace with the scale of Chile’s underground operations.

On 4 August 2026, La Tercera reported that Codelco had temporarily suspended construction at its Andes Norte structural project for safety reasons. Andes Norte employed roughly 3,000 workers.

The contractor question

Contractors appear in every row. The Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), a copper workers’ federation, has long criticised Codelco’s heavy use of outsourcing. It argues outsourcing fragments safety responsibility and weakens oversight compared with in-house crews.

Codelco and Chilean authorities point instead to continuous safety improvement, compliance with Sernageomin and the need for projects like Andes Norte to manage geotechnical risk. A pattern of incidents is clear. Proof that these events share a single cause is not.

The history still matters for you: one serious incident here has already cost a year of reduced output. The question is whether this one stays local.

Does this move copper supply or prices?

The honest answer, for now, is no evidence either way.

Market reaction No copper price move, futures reaction or named analyst commentary tied to the mudslide had been reported as of 11 October 2026.

Scale helps frame the risk. El Teniente’s 310,000 tonnes in 2025 compares with Codelco’s own production of about 1,334,400 tonnes, according to Cochilco-based reports. Including stakes in El Abra and Anglo American Sur, attributable output rises to roughly 1,439,600 tonnes. No 2026 year-to-date figures for El Teniente have been published, and no precise share of global supply was identified.

Codelco’s output declines earlier in 2026 show how thin supply margins are, meaning even localised disruptions at a flagship division can carry weight for a market that has little spare copper.

The 2025 collapse showed that an underground disaster can hit output for a full year. A surface slide confined to one area usually triggers localised suspensions rather than large losses. For you, this is a safety story first and a supply story only if Codelco or regulators widen restrictions.

What to watch next:

1. Any suspension of the El Rajo sector or the wider division
2. Sernageomin action or a formal investigation
3. Codelco production updates for El Teniente
4. The outcome of the rescue

What to watch as the rescue and review unfold

The immediate priority is the two AURA workers still in the truck. Everything else comes second. The wider significance of the El Teniente mudslide depends on whether restrictions extend beyond El Rajo, and nothing confirmed so far suggests they have.

This article reflects information available as of 11 October 2026. Codelco statements and any Sernageomin announcements are the sources to follow. They will show first whether a localised emergency becomes an operational one.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions.