Power outage hits swaths of Chile, from largest copper mine to Santiago streets

A large power outage struck vast swaths of Chile on Tuesday, interrupting mining operations in the world’s biggest copper producer and leaving residents of Santiago without electricity.

The head of Chile’s National Electricity Coordinator (CEN), Ernesto Huber, said there was still no time frame to restore electricity across the country, adding areas in the north and south had started to regain power.

“We’ve activated several power stations, mainly hydroelectric stations,” Huber said, adding CEN was still investigating the cause of the outage.

Huber said companies were working to restore power “as soon as possible” and the agency would provide a more detailed update at 21:30 local time (0030 GMT).

Areas from the mining-intensive north to the central and southern regions that are home to most of the population, including capital Santiago, were affected, according to the government.

Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, was without electricity, a source close to the matter told Reuters, while state-owned copper miner Codelco said all its mines had been affected.

Chuquicamata, Andina, Salvador and El Teniente mines were without power and its other mines were using backup power generation to operate on a partial basis, Codelco said.

Antofagasta and Anglo American both said that their mines were operating with generators.

The power outage affected the country from the northern Arica and Parinacota region to the southern Los Lagos region, according to Chile’s national disaster prevention and response service SENAPRED, although no emergency situations have been reported.

Chile’s DGAC Civil Aviation Authority said that Santiago’s Arturo Merino International Airport was operating normally but LATAM Airlines said some flights could be affected by the outage.

Streetlights in the capital were not working, and sirens from emergency vehicles blared across the city, according to Reuters witnesses. The Santiago metro, which transports millions of passengers, was closed and passengers were evacuated from stalled trains.

“There’s nothing. There’s no cash. No money. Nothing,” said Jose Luis Orlandini, who was eating in downtown Santiago when the cut happened.

Chile’s interior minister Carolina Toha said the outage was caused by a transmission line failure in the country’s north, ruling out a cyber attack as a cause.

Toha said that power should start coming back online in the “coming hours.”

“We hope that what we’ve been told will happen, that in the next few hours we’ll have electrical service back,” Toha said. “And if that’s not the case, we’ll have to take different measures.”

(By Fabian Andres Cambero, Alexander Villegas and Rodrigo Gutierrez; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)