Chilean Rescue Find Two Copper Miners Dead After Collapse

Chile copper mining , Chilean rescue workers found the bodies of two miners who were trapped underground after the Los Reyes copper mine collapsed today, the South American country?s national emergency office Onemi said.
Five miners managed to escape the cave-in and at least one is being treated in the hospital for a minor injury, Tatiana Rayo, shift manager at Onemi, said in a telephone interview from Santiago, adding that the information is preliminary. Bloomberg News was unable to confirm the name of the mine?s owner and Onemi wasn?t able to provide it.

Chile mining regulators hadn?t authorized the Los Reyes mine?s operations, Chile Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said in a message on his Twitter account, which was verified by his press office. The mine?s operator wasn?t licensed to use explosives, Golborne said.

The accident at the small mine may have been caused by explosives, Francisco Garcia, a spokesman for the regional government, said today in a telephone interview. Government and law enforcement authorities are on the scene to extract the bodies and investigate the cause of the accident, Rayo said.

The Los Reyes mine is in the same region of the Atacama Desert as the San Jose copper and gold mine where last month?s rescue of 33 miners was watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world. The 70-day rescue in Chile beat a previous record set during a 25-day rescue of three coal workers in Guizhou, China, in 2009.
Chile?s government is revamping rules to improve the health and safety standards of small-scale mines like San Jose, Minister Laurence Golborne said in an Oct. 25 interview.
Los Reyes is about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Copiapo, while the San Jose mining operation is 45 kilometers north of Copiapo.