(Bloomberg) -- An earthquake struck Chile’s northern copper and lithium mining region late Thursday, triggering brief power cuts, rock-slides and one death, local press said. There were no immediate reports of operational problems at the mines.
The 7.4 magnitude quake hit at 9:50 p.m. local time, according to the United States Geological Survey, at a depth of 117.4 km. Deeper earthquakes tend to be less damaging than shallower ones, but they can be widely felt.
The world’s biggest copper mine, Escondida, jointly owned by BHP Group Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group, is one of the mines located near the quake. Chile’s state-owned Codelco also has operations in the area, including the historic Chuquicamata pit. SQM’s Salar de Atacama lithium operation is south of San Pedro de Atacama, which is 45 kilometers from the epicenter of the quake. Chile is the world’s top supplier of copper, and the second largest producer of lithium.
Operations at the Escondida mine are not affected as of now, BHP’s spokesperson said, but checks are ongoing. Codelco activated preventive protocols, which includes evaluation of structures and progressive return to operation, while SQM said everything was in order, according to written responses in request for comments.
Rio Tinto did not have any immediate comment.
--With assistance from Paul-Alain Hunt, Annie Lee, Yasufumi Saito, Valentina Fuentes and Jason Scott.
(Adds company responses on fourth paragraph. An earlier version of the story was corrected to remove a reference to Chile as the world’s top supplier of lithium.)
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