Chile’s capital city, Santiago, and major copper mines in the country’s north were hit by a massive power outage on Tuesday, impacting global metal markets.
Chile’s government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M. local time (0100 to 0900 GMT), spanning from the northern region of Arica to the southern region of Los Lagos, according to a Reuters report.
These measures were put into effect hours after the outage began and as night fell.
Interior Minister Carolina Toha reported that the massive blackout resulted from a transmission line failure in the northern region of the country. Toha ruled out a cyberattack as the cause.
Largest power outage in years
Santiago experienced its largest power outage in years.
The outage caused streetlights to go dark, sirens from emergency vehicles to blare across the city, and the Santiago metro to close, leaving passengers to be evacuated from stalled trains, according to the report.
The interior ministry announced the deployment of armed forces nationwide to assist in maintaining order.
Juan Carlos Olmedo, the board president of Chile’s National Electricity Coordinator (CEN), stated that around a quarter of the electrical grid’s demand had been restored as of 10 P.M. and that full power could be restored by morning.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric stated in a late-night television address that 8 million homes were affected by the power outage, but power had been restored to approximately 4 million homes.
Boric said:
What happened today is outrageous because it’s not tolerable that one or several companies impact the everyday life of millions of Chileans, and that’s why it’s the state’s duty to hold them responsible.
The cause of the outage is still under investigation by CEN.
“We’ve activated several power stations, mainly hydroelectric stations,” said CEN executive director Ernesto Huber.
Copper mines affected
The power outage impacted operations at major copper mines and affected regions across Chile, including the mining-heavy north and the more populated central and southern areas.
Chile, the world’s leading copper producer, experienced disruptions in key copper mining operations due to the widespread outage.
Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, was without electricity, the report stated.
Meanwhile, Codelco, the state-owned copper miner, reported that all its mines were affected.
Codelco stated that the Chuquicamata, Andina, Salvador, and El Teniente mines were all without power, while its other mines were operating partially on backup power generation.
Mining companies Antofagasta and Anglo-American have both reported that their mining operations have been impacted by the power outages in Chile.
To mitigate the effects of the power disruption, both companies have resorted to using generators to maintain essential operations at their mine sites.
SENAPRED, Chile’s national disaster prevention and response service, reported that the power outage impacted the country from the northern Arica and Parinacota region to the southern Los Lagos region.
No emergencies have been reported.
Santiago’s Arturo Merino International Airport is operating normally, according to Chile’s DGAC Civil Aviation Authority.
However, LATAM Airlines has indicated that the power outage may cause disruptions to some flights, according to the report.
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