Chile's state-owned Codelco has announced leadership changes at its El Teniente mine following the findings of an internal investigation into a deadly collapse at the operation on July 31. The company said the probe uncovered inconsistencies and what it described as "concealment" of certain technical matters reported after an earlier rock explosion in 2023.
As part of the personnel shifts, Codelco said it was removing El Teniente general manager Claudio Sougarret, who had been the unit's operations manager in 2023 and assumed the general manager role last August. The company also removed current vice president of operations Mauricio Barraza and El Teniente project manager Rodrigo Andrades, who previously served as the mine's mining manager.
Sougarret will be succeeded by Gustavo Reyes, while Lindo Quiroga has been named to replace Barraza. The company did not provide further personnel detail beyond the appointments and the audit findings in its announcement.
The July collapse at El Teniente occurred within an expansion project intended to raise output at the mine, a key asset for Codelco as it seeks to reverse declining production. The incident resulted in six fatalities and has had direct implications for the mine's production profile.
Following the accident, the company revised its production outlook for the site. On Tuesday, Sougarret had said that El Teniente's output was now expected to remain at a lower level for the next five years - an extension from an earlier estimate of three years of suppressed production following the accident.
The announcement of executive changes comes against this backdrop of operational challenges and a formal internal audit that highlighted shortcomings in how technical events were documented after a 2023 rock explosion. Codelco framed the removals as responses to the audit's detection of inconsistencies and concealment in reported technical aspects tied to those events.
For stakeholders tracking copper supply and company-level execution, the developments at El Teniente underline ongoing operational and governance issues at one of the world's largest copper producers. Codelco's management shifts and the revised production timeline will be factors for industry participants monitoring near- and medium-term supply expectations.
Context and next steps
The company has announced replacements for key management roles but has not provided additional operational details or timelines for remedial actions tied to the audit findings. The implications for broader production targets and project schedules were not expanded on in the company's statement.