Three miners are trapped 70 meters deep in northern Chile

Three Bolivian miners remained trapped 70 meters deep after the collapse of a mine in Tocopilla, in northern Chile, which caused the mouth of the chimney that serves as access , blocked by a big rock, reported the Service today. National Institute of Geology and Mining (Sernageomin).

The accident occurred yesterday around 20 (including 21 in Argentina) due to "the collapse of materials in the San José de Tocopilla mine," said Sernageomin in a statement posted on his Twitter account.

"It has been determined that there is a big" bolon "that covers the mouth of a chimney that serves access to miners," said the geology department, adding that He would make a "small detonation controlled to move the rock". This is a small detonation because they do not want to endanger the integrity of the miners, neither by the explosion nor by the toxic gases they produce during this process. "

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The national director of the service, Alfonso Domeyko, "went to the area with other specialists of the Mining Branch to complete the work," said the agency.

According to official information, this would be the Directory 8 mine, Punto San José, located in the city of Tocopilla, in the Antofagasta region, 700 km from the mine where, in 2010, 33 miners were trapped for 70 years. days.

In statements to local media, the mayor of Tocopilla, Luis Moyano, said he managed to contact the three imprisoned miners "by our pirquineros and Tocopilla firefighters.We await the arrival of the inhabitants of Sernageomin start the work of Removal of equipment with machinery and mining personnel in order to pursue to find the people who are inside "