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

Tierra Amarilla (Reuters) -The residents in Tierra Amarilla, the town of Madencilik in the desert, will eliminate the fears of a new court decision about a giant knot that has been opened for more than three years ago.

This month, a Chilean Environment Court ordered Minera Ojos Del Salado, which belongs to Lundin mining of Canada, to repair the environmental damage related to the activities in the Alcaparrosa copper mine, which was thought to triggered the dinner that emerged in 2022.

The decision invites the company to protect the water source of the region and to fill the butter. The cylindrical crater was initially measured at a depth of 64 meters and 32 meters (105 ft) on the surface.

This has provided a small measure of relief to the Kurak Tierra Amarilla in the middle Atacama region of Chile, which feared that the hole can swallow more land without healing.

Rudy Rudy Alfaro, 800 meters away from the house, said. A health center and preschool said it was nearby.

He continued: “We were afraid that it would grow, expand, and move towards the houses.”

He said that the knot had recently thrown dust clouds in an earthquake and provoked more concern.

The court approved the closure of the small Alcaparrosa mine ordered by Chile’s environmental regulator and confirmed a “irreversible” damage to an aquifer who filtered the water and weakens the surrounding rock.

“This is already harmful to a hydrologically stressful area,” Regional Water Director Rodrigo Saez said. He said.

Lundin said he would work with the authorities to implement improvement measures.

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