Heavy snowfall disrupts rescue of workers trapped at Mandalay’s mine in Chile

Heavy snowfall in Chile’s southern region of Aysén has complicated efforts to rescue two miners who have been trapped for a week at Mandalay Resources’ (TSX:MND) mine, after the section in which they were working was flooded.

The Canadian company said a landslide on June 9 at a section of the Delia mine, part of its Cerro Bayo gold and silver complex, sparked the flooding from a nearby lake, leaving two workers trapped underground.

Operations have been suspended since June 9. Rescue efforts are focused on diverting the water and trying to make contact with the shelter.

It’s unknown whether the missing miners, identified as Enrique Ojeda (34) and Jorge Sánchez (25), are still alive as authorities have been unable to make contact with them.

Rescuers believe they might have reached an emergency shelter, which is located some 200 metres underground and about 50 metres from the site of the landslide, local news site El Mostrador reported (in Spanish).

They added efforts continue to be focused on diverting the water and trying to make contact with the shelter.

The unfolding event recalls the 2010 mining accident in northern Chile, when 33 miners made world headlines after they survived in an emergency shelter for more than three months before being rescued.

Mandalay said Thursday it was "doing everything possible" to locate the two miners, noting that the presence of water and disturbed material has made the task “extremely complicated.”

Cerro Bayo mine, which produced around 14,000 ounces of gold and 1.7 million ounces of silver last year, is located Chile’s Aysén region, the country’s least populated, but one with abundance of lakes and glaciers.

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