Giant sinkhole in Chilean mining town haunts residents, three years on

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TIERRA AMARILLA (Reuters) -Residents in the mining town of Tierra Amarilla in the Chilean desert are hopeful that a new court ruling will allay their fears about a giant sinkhole that opened near their homes more than three years ago and remains unfilled.

A Chilean environmental court this month ordered Minera Ojos del Salado, owned by Canada’s Lundin Mining, to repair environmental damage related to activity at its Alcaparrosa copper mine, which is thought to have triggered the sinkhole that appeared in 2022.

The ruling calls on the company to protect the region’s water supply and refill the sinkhole. The cylindrical crater originally measured 64 meters (210 ft) deep and 32 meters (105 ft) wide at the surface.

That has provided a small measure of relief to those in arid Tierra Amarilla in Chile’s central Atacama region, who fear that without remediation the gaping hole could swallow up more land.

“Ever since the sinkhole occurred … we’ve lived in fear,” said Rudy Alfaro, whose home is 800 meters from the site. A health center and preschool are nearby too, she said.

“We were afraid it would get bigger, that it would expand, move toward the houses.” 

The sinkhole expelled clouds of dust in a recent earthquake, provoking more anxiety, she said.     

The court upheld a shutdown of the small Alcaparrosa mine ordered by Chile’s environmental regulator in January, and confirmed “irreversible” damage to an aquifer, which drained water into the mine and weakened the surrounding rock.

“This is detrimental to an area that is already hydrologically stressed,” said Rodrigo Saez, regional water director. 

Lundin said it will work with authorities to implement remediation measures.

(Writing by Daina Beth Solomon, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)