History Daily - The Chilean Mining Accident

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

October 13, 2010. A mining accident in Copiapó, Chile ends as all 33 trapped miners arrive at the surface after a record 69 days underground. This episode originally aired in 2022. Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

It's August 5th, 2010 in the Otacama Desert near Copiapo, Chile. Franklin Lobos drives a pickup truck through the cavernous depths of a copper mine, 2,000 feet beneath the surface of the earth. He's on his way to collect a group of miners and bring them to the surface for lunch. Franklin stares ahead blankly, his headlights beaming into pitch darkness. As he drives, Franklin hears a familiar sound, a haunting groan of rocks shifting deep inside the mountain. The more superstitious miners have a name for this,

phenomenon. They say it's the sound of the mountain weeping. Franklin slips the truck into second gear as he follows the mine's main passageway around a corner, and all the while, under the wine of the truck's motor, the gnashing of gears and the crunch of tires, the sound of the mountain weeping fills the dark passageways far underneath the surface. But then, out of nowhere, a sonorous boom reverberates off the walls of the tunnel. Franklin strains his ears. This isn't a sound he recognizes. Then a split second later, a massive explosion rips through the mine, shattering the glass in the truck's rear window and knocking the wind out of Franklin. The miner spins around and squints into the darkness. Slabs of rock tumble from the ceiling

of the passage. Franklin realizes with a sickening jolt, the entire mine shaft is collapsing. Franklin is immobilized with panic. But the sound of other miners scream snaps Franklin out of his days. He wrenches the truck into first gear and tears off down the mine shaft, desperately fleeing the tidal wave of rock and debris surging towards him. On August 5, 2010,

a gargantuan slab of rock broke off the mountain and sliced through the San Jose copper mine. Franklin will be just one of 33 workers trapped by the worst mining accident in Chilean history. And soon, the world's attention will turn to Chile

and to the 33 miners fighting for their lives. In the end, it will take a Herculian effort on the part of Chile's government and emergency services and an inspiring feat of willpower from the miners themselves to see the entire crew brought to safety on October 13, 2010. Hello, History Daily listeners. The live show I've been telling you about for a few weeks has a new date, October 23rd at the Plaza Theater in Garland, Texas.

This is my Days that Made America Tour, a thrilling evening of history, storytelling, and music with me and a band live on stage. So if you're in the North Texas area or anywhere close, be sure to come out and see me live. More shows will be announced soon, too. So for information on tickets and upcoming dates, go to historydailylive.com. That's historydailylive.com. Come see my Days at Made America Tour, live on stage. Go to historydaily live.com.

From Noisor and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham. And this is History Daily. History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is October 13, 2010, the Chilean mining accident. It's the morning of August 5, 2010, just hours before the collapse of the San Jose mine. 54-year-old Luis Urzua sits on a bus as it trundles through the Atacama Desert. He gazes at the scenery streaking past the window,

a Martian landscape of rust-colored hills studded with mining apparatus. In Chile, mining is the national industry. Precious metals like gold, silver, and copper constitute over half of the country's exports, and mining them provides jobs for more than 200,000 people like Louise. Louise is the shift supervisor at the San Jose mine, the person responsible for ensuring the safety of his fellow miners. It's an important job. Mining is exceedingly dangerous, with accidents occurring every.

every year, and the San Jose mine is notorious for its poor safety standards. Over a hundred years of drilling have left the mountainside weak and prone to cave-ins. To avoid investing in costly safety precautions, the mining company who owns the San Jose mine simply raised the miners pay 20% above the national average in compensation for the risk. For Louise and his coworkers, that extra income enables them to support their families, even if it means risking their own lives. So Louise takes his job as supervisor seriously. He only started working at the mine three months ago.

He hasn't yet earned the trust of the older miners, but Louise is eager to turn that around. As a member of the senior management team, Louise doesn't have to take the bus with the rank and file miners, but he chooses to. He wants his men to know he's one of them, because in the mine, trust between the men is essential. As the bus arrives at its destination,

Louise disembarked with his coworkers, shielding his eyes from the desert sun. He steps through the mine's single entrance, a narrow hole in the side of the mountain. Then he climbs into his Toyota pickup truck and begins to descent down the spiraling metal service road into the mine. As he drives, Louise listens to the sounds of the mountain, the distant rumbles and the ominous groans.

Louise frowns. He's used to hearing the mountain weeping, as the miners call it, but he's never heard the mountain weep this loudly or for this long. Despite his concerns, Louise continues making his rounds. A few hours later, Louise heads down into the depths of the mine. At more than 2,000 feet beneath the surface, the temperature is a sweltering 98 degrees. Luis wipes sweat from his brow as he steps out of the truck. He's come to check on a miner named Mario Sipulveda.

Mario operates a front loader, type of industrial digger. Luis finds the younger miner, sitting in his front loader, scooping up rocks flecked with copper. But as he waves at Mario to get his attention, there's a sudden dull boom from somewhere in the mine. Louise is struck by a powerful blast of compressed air and nearly knocked to his feet, trying to keep his footing, gasping for breath,

a pair of headlights abruptly appeared through the dust cloud. It's his second in command, Florentio. Florentio yells that the mine is collapsing and quickly Louise and Mario jump inside Florentio's pickup, and begin the drive to the refuge, a fortified shelter where the miners retreat when there's a collapse. But when Louise opens the door to the refuge, he finds the room empty. By now, most of them should have made their way to the refuge, but his men are nowhere to be seen. Louise glances upward, his eyes filled with worry.

He can still hear the mountain collapsing above his head and feel the walls of the mine trembling. Somewhere below him, his men are missing, and it's Luis's responsibility to find them. Luis instructs Florentio to drive deeper into the mine, to search for the rest of the men, and soon all the miners are accounted for except one. Louise, Florentio, and Mario continue on their downward descent, and eventually they see the dim glow of a miner's headlamp in the tunnel. When they pull up alongside him, Luis sees the man is shaking with fear, like he's seen a ghost. Louise drags him into the pickup, and as he does, the passage fills with an ear-splitting roar,

another massive explosion even bigger than the first. Somewhere in the mine, something colossal has just fallen. After returning to the refuge, Louise does a quick headcount of his men. There are 33 here, including himself. Mario scrambles up the ventilation shaft to assess the extent of the blockage. When he returns, he's ashen-faced. It isn't a pile of rocks blocking the main passageway. It's one huge, solid slab like a guillotine has sliced through the ramp,

out of the mine. Louise looks at his men. He can see the fear etched into their faces. He knows that in situations like this, hierarchy can lead to resentment, so Louise makes a symbolic gesture. He removes his white helmet, the marker of his superior status. Miners take note. Louise's decision isn't just symbolic, it's unprecedented, a gesture that says if we want to get out of here alive, we will have to work together as equals. What making it out of the mine will not be easy. The feet will test the men both mentally and physically, and the miners will not be able to do it on their own. After hours of being trapped, their predicament will capture the nation's attention, and help will finally be on the way. It's the early morning of August 6, 2010, 68 days before

the Chilean miners are rescued. In Santiago, Chile, Lawrence Goldborn is abruptly awoken by his cell phone buzzing on the nightstand. Still half asleep, the 49-year-old politician, reaches over and stares at the screen. It's a text alert that reads Collapse at San Jose Mine, 33 missing. Goldborn sit bolt upright, suddenly wide awake. Goldborn is Chile's new appointed minister of mining. Before entering politics, he was a successful CEO of a large retail company. And when he got the new minister of mining job five months ago, many miners were skeptical.

To them, Goldborn is emblematic of the out-of-touch suits who run their industry, a man who cares more about the stock market than the plight of the average miner. But Goldborn is aware of his reputation and eager to prove his naysayers wrong. As minister of mining, he is in charge of the rescue effort to free the trapped miners, his first big challenge, and he doesn't want to fail. Quickly, the minister leaps out of bed and into action. Soon he's in the backseat of a chauffeered SUV, snaking its way up the mountainside toward the San Jose mine.

When he arrives, Goldborn finds the site crowded with people. It's been 36 hours since the collapse, and the miners' families have no idea if their loved ones are alive. They've established a temporary village on the surface, a settlement of canvas tents and supply stores called Camp Esperanza, Camp Hope. Goldborn approaches a group of police officers huddled around the mine entrance and asks them how they plan to access the miners. The team leader informs them that they intend to climb down the ventilation shaft using ropes. Goldborn nods and is ushered away to the tent serving as a small. the command headquarters. But before he can even reach the tent, Goldborn hears raised voices. He turns to see the miners' families surging toward him, anguish faces demanding to know if the miners are still

alive. Goldborn is speechless. He has sympathy for the families, but he doesn't have answers. Not yet. He apologizes, then ducks inside the command tent. Once inside, Goldburn whips out his cell phone and dials the number of a drilling company. Goldborn might not know anything about mining, but he's experienced when he comes to logistics, and he doesn't want to let the miners' families down. He places an order for a heavy-duty industrial drill. Goldborn knows that the police attempt to access the miners down the ventilation shaft might fail, and if it does, they need a backup plan.

Goldborn intends to provide it. A few hours later, the police rescuers returned to the surface, shaking their heads with disappointment. Goldborn rushes over, asking what happened. One man says, I've never seen a blockage like that. it's huge. Goldborn asks if there was any sign of the miners, and the police rescuer replies in a weak voice, no, there's no way anyone could survive that Rockfall. Goldborn curses and turns away. Camera crews and reporters swarm around the shell-shocked police rescuers.

Goldborn doesn't want the media to speculate about the miners' deaths, so he swallows the lump in his throat, stands on a chair, and makes the following announcement. Attention please. The initial rescue attempt was not successful, but we're trying some other techniques to reach the miners. Goldborn himself also doesn't actually think the miners are alive, but he can't stop picturing the tears streaked faces of the miners' families. He knows that if this story is going to have a happy ending at all, it's crucial that they don't give up hope. Later that day, the drilling equipment arrives on site, and a team of engineers starts pummeling the rock. Eight more drills are also deployed, and the surrounding desert echoes with a roar of hydraulic machinery.

Soon, the chief engineer of Chile's largest state-owned mine arrives to serve as a tactical head of the rescue effort. Andre Segaret has masterminded dozens of rescues in the past, but nothing on this scale. He knows the odds of the rescue effort succeeding are low. When he reaches his sight, Andre approaches the mine entrance and holds his hand above the rockfall. He feels a light breeze traveling through the cracks, and this means if the miners are still alive, at least they won't suffocate.

Andre suspects the miners will be sheltered in the refuge, a fortified room more than 600 meters underground. If true, they probably have enough food and water to sustain themselves for a few weeks and most. Andre knows it's a race against time. They can't waste a single second. Given the density of the rock, it takes an entire day to drill 100 meters, and the drills often miss their target. Still, despite multiple false starts,

Andre and his staff eventually make a breakthrough. After two weeks of non-stop drilling, the drill bit retracted from the earth covered in red spray paint and handwritten messages from the miners. The drill has hit its target and found all 33 miners safe and well. But despite the enormity of the breakthrough

and the joy of the miners' families, it will be clear to Andre that the ordeal isn't over. It could take 120 days for the drills to create a hole wide enough to lift the men through. And with the mines, miners' health rapidly declining and the risk of another collapse always threatening. It is still unclear. These 33 men will make it out of the mountain alive.

It's October 13, 2010. Shift supervisor, Luis Orzua, sits in his truck deep inside the collapsed San Jose mine. Luis's face is haggard and darkened by a bristly beard. His skin is sallow from the lack of sunlight, and his body aches from months spent sleeping on a hard stone floor. but in Luis's eyes there's the glimmer of hope. Luis and his fellow miners have been trapped underground for 69 days. The first two weeks were very tough. The miners had no idea if a rescue effort was underway to save them.

And in the meantime, they were running low on provisions. Rationing had them down to one spoonful of canned tuna a day, washed down with a single sip of dirty water. But after the rescuers reached the miners with their drills, things started to look up. regular supplies of food, water, and medicine were sent down to the mine, and the miners' spirits began to lift, but their nightmare wasn't over. It's taken over a month for the engineers to drill a hole wide enough to lift them out, and as the time passed, the miners' physical and mental

health continued to worsen. But today, the hole is finally ready for the miners to be lifted out. Their ordeal seems to be on the verge of a happy ending, but even now Louise is concerned. The mountain is still rumbling and groaning. If the rock shift even slightly, the hole could close up and crush whoever's inside. But Louise doesn't share these concerns with his men. Now is not the time for worst-case scenarios. Soon, the first miner is strapped inside a metal capsule to be heaved up through the hole to the surface. The others wish him luck as the capsule is lifted by cables attached to a crane.

It's a painstakingly slow ascent through more than 2,000 feet of solid rock. But after 50 minutes, the miner reaches the surface. where a huge crowd has gathered to witness his rescue. One by one, the miners are lifted from the ground, and gradually, Louise starts to feel optimistic. He allows his thoughts to turn to the future, through his wife and children in his life above ground. And finally, after more than 30 hours,

all the other miners are rescued. Finally, it is Louise's turn. He climbs inside the capsule, and soon he emerges from the mountain too. He embraces his children, and then his wife, wrapping her in the house, wrapping her in a tearful embrace. Finally, their nightmare is over.

Following the disaster, Louise will retire from mining and turn his efforts to activism, fighting to improve the dangerous working conditions for miners all across Chile. But his story, the story of the 32 other miners and the heroic effort to bring them to safety will continue to captivate the world. Five years later, the Chilean mining incident will even be turned into a Hollywood movie,

gripping audiences with the highs and lows of an incredible saga that was brought to an end when all 33 Chilean miners were rescued on October 13, 2010. Next on History Daily, October 14, 1943. Prisoners at an extermination camp in German-occupied Poland launch an uprising to an attempt a mass breakout. From Noisor and Airship, this is History Daily. Post it, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing and sound design by Derek Barron's. Music by Lindsay Graham. This episode is written and research by Joe Viner, produced by Alexandra Curry Buckner. Executive producers are Stephen Walters for airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.