Chilean state copper miner Codelco was fined by labor authorities after last year's deadly collapse at its El Teniente mine, while three contractors whose workers were killed or injured were sanctioned more heavily, according to inspection records obtained by Reuters through public-records requests.
The previously unreported sanctions were imposed in the months following the July 31 underground seismic event that triggered a rock burst at El Teniente, the world's largest underground copper mine, killing six contract workers and injuring others.
Reuters obtained the files from Chile's labor ministry through open-records requests. In Chile, such fines are notified directly to employers and can be challenged or reduced administratively, but are not typically disclosed in public announcements.
At the time of the accident, then-Labor Minister Giorgio Boccardo said that his office and the mining regulator, Sernageomin, would investigate the causes of the incident and whether any labor-safety rules had been breached.
The quake, measured at about magnitude 4.3, led to a halt in all underground operations at the sprawling mine complex amid rescue efforts and safety inspections.
The disaster also underscored the geotechnical risks facing Chile's aging underground mines.
CONTRACTORS FINED MORE THAN CODELCO
The records show the three contractors were fined the equivalent of about $87,000 combined, versus roughly $20,000 for Codelco, a gap that reflects Chile's split-liability framework for subcontracted work.
While the principal company - Codelco - can be penalized for overarching safety failures, contractors remain directly responsible as employers for accident reporting, risk assessment, worker assignment and other compliance duties, under Chile's labor code.
In one sanction, labor inspectors said Codelco lacked a complete, written procedure showing how seismic warnings were used to decide whether work should stop or be restricted.
After the accident, regulators also found that Codelco violated labor rules when workers were found entering, or preparing to enter, underground areas while the mine-wide suspension remained in force, according to a separate sanction record.
Under Chilean labor rules, some serious or fatal-accident violations can be fined at up to 150 UTM, an inflation-linked Chilean tax unit, or about $11,000 at current values, per infraction. The regulator levied a 340 UTM penalty, roughly $26,000 in today's terms, on a company after a fatal construction-site collapse in a 2007 case.
Labor advocates and worker-safety specialists have questioned whether such small penalties carry enough deterrent force for major employers.
"It is essential to raise the size of fines in order to effectively deter companies from violating mining safety regulations," a Chilean House of Representatives investigative commission report said in 2011 after a mining disaster.
Proposals since then to hike up fines for serious or fatal workplace accidents have not gotten off the ground.
CODELCO DETAILS CHANGES
Since the collapse, Codelco has said it tightened safety procedures for restarting work at El Teniente, adding safety briefings at the start of shifts, improving communications underground, stepping up checks on workers' locations and reviewing protective equipment.
It later said an independent panel led by a former Anglo American CEO was examining what caused the accident and whether broader management or workplace problems played a role.
In a statement to Reuters, Codelco said that its seismic alert response system was active the day of the accident, and that it had appealed the fine by the labor ministry.
It added that there was an "ongoing legal proceeding related to the oversight of worker entry during the work stoppage" and that it was awaiting a decision from authorities.
Codelco said in August that El Teniente mine manager Andres Music would leave his role, and in February announced the departure of three senior executives after an internal audit found inconsistencies and concealment following a separate rock burst at the mine several years earlier.
SUBCONTRACTORS TALLY LARGER FINES
Among the three contracting firms fined, Strabag (STRV.VI) subsidiary Zublin was fined for failing to report a worker's death within 24 hours. Inspectors found that although the company knew about the fatality within two hours, it didn't notify labor authorities until the following evening.
Immediate reporting is critical to implement emergency safety measures to protect remaining workers, the report said.
The Austrian company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A unit of Chilean construction firm SalfaCorp (SALFACORP.SN) was also sanctioned after one of its workers died in the Andesita sector of the mine. Inspectors said the company failed to immediately report the fatal accident to authorities, in addition to other offenses.
The records also said Salfa's risk assessment did not adequately account for seismic hazards and that the company failed to do enough to protect workers' lives.
SalfaCorp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chile's labor regulator also fined Constructora Gardilcic, the unlisted contractor whose workers were killed and injured in the Recursos Norte area of the mine.
Inspectors said the company reported the accident late, delayed filing injury reports and showed weak safety planning.
Authorities also concluded Gardilcic did not adequately account for the risk of violent rock bursts outside designated danger zones and put some workers in jobs they were not cleared to do.
Gardilcic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LONG ROAD AHEAD
Codelco has said the areas hardest hit by the accident will remain under tight restrictions while criminal, regulatory and technical investigations continue.
The company has pledged a gradual, regulator-approved restart, leaving uncertainty over when the entire mine can resume normal operations.
