SantiaGO (Reuters) - A large-scale power outage across Chile threw Santiago, the capital, into darkness on Tuesday and cut off electricity to many northern copper mines, so affecting world metal markets.


Chile's government declared a state of emergency and set a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (0100 to 0900 GMT) from the northern region of Arica to the southern region of Los Lagos hours after the outage started and as darkness fell.

Interior Minister Carolina Toha revealed that a transmission line breakdown in the nation's north caused the broad blackout; she ruled out a cyber assault as a cause.

According to Reuters witnesses, Chile's biggest power interruption in years saw lamps in the capital go dark while sirens from emergency vehicles blared around the city. Millions of people ride the Santiago metro, thus it was closed and passengers were pulled from stopped trains.

" None exists. There isn't any cash. Not one penny. Nothing," said Jose Luis Orlandini, dining in Santiago's downtown when the outage struck.

According to the interior ministry, the military troops were being sent all throughout the nation to support order maintenance.

Juan Carlos Olmedo, the board president of Chile's National Electricity Coordinator (CEN), said that as of 10 p.m., roughly a quarter of the demand on the electrical grid was back on line and that morning would allow complete restoration of electricity.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced in a late-night television address to the country that although 8 million houses had been impacted, electricity had been restored to around half of them.

The events today are shocking since it is unacceptable that one or several businesses affect the daily existence of millions of Chileans and hence the state has an obligation to hold them accountable.


As lights turned on, neighbours of Providencia in the capital burst in applause.


CEN indicated it was currently looking at the reason the outage occurred. CEN executive director Ernesto Huber said, "We have activated several power stations, mostly hydroelectric stations."

Copper Minues Affect

Operations at important copper mines suffered as the outage affected areas from the mining-intensive north to the middle and southern regions home to most of the Andean nation's population. Chile ranks highest among copper producers worldwide.

The biggest copper mine in the world, Escondida, lacked electricity, according to a person close to the subject; state-owned copper miner Codelco reported all of its mines had been impacted.

Codelco claimed the Chuquicamata, Andina, Salvador and El Teniente mines lacked electricity; their other mines were running on a partial basis using backup power generating.

Both Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Anglo American (JO:AGLJ) reported that generators were running in their mines.

According to Chile's national disaster prevention and response agency SENAPRED, the power outage struck the nation from the northern Arica and Parinacota area to the southern Los Lagos region. There have been no recorded emergencies.

Santiago's Arturo Merino International Airport was running regularly, according to Chile's DGAC Civil Aviation Authority; nevertheless, LATAM Airlines (NYSE:LTM) reported certain flights would be impacted by the outage.