Overview
- Rescuers found four miners on Wednesday after they spent three to four nights stranded above 4,000 meters in Catamarca during a storm that buried vehicles and dropped temperatures as low as −27°C.
- The workers survived by using mountain survival tactics including keeping shelter in a truck until it was buried, lighting fires, one miner partially burying himself in snow, and two leaving to seek a satellite signal that allowed them to send coordinates.
- A multi‑agency operation involving firefighters, provincial police, gendarmerie, road crews, mining teams, contractors and heavy machinery cleared blocked routes and located the men across several points of the high plateau.
- All four were hospitalized for hypothermia and related cold injuries with at least one showing signs of frostbite in the lower limbs; hospitals report their short‑term evolution as favorable while they remain under observation.
- Relatives and the Asociación Obrera Minera Argentina have accused Rio Tinto of continuing operations despite the weather and delaying aid; the company says it has suspended site activity, is reviewing the incident and provincial officials will examine compliance with winter safety protocols, a probe that could reshape local mining contingency rules.