A miner was pulled to safety on Wednesday after spending almost 14 days trapped underground following a collapse at a mine in northern Sinaloa, authorities reported.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that another miner had been found dead and one remains missing.
The incident occurred at the El Rosario mine on March 25 when a dam failure caused by structural weaknesses flooded the site, trapping Francisco Zapata Nájera along with three colleagues. Out of 25 miners present during the accident, 21 escaped immediately. Five days later, rescuers retrieved one survivor from a depth of 300 meters (985 feet).
Zapata Nájera was located by divers on Tuesday, but heavy flooding delayed extraction, and rescue teams reached him only 21 hours later.
The miner was brought to the surface Wednesday morning. After his condition was stabilized, he was transported by a Mexican Air Force helicopter to a hospital in Mazatlán, where specialists will provide treatment.
Earlier, Sheinbaum had said that the rescue effort was waiting for water to be pumped out to allow safe extraction.
The tragedy recalls the August 2022 disaster at the El Pinabete coal mine in Coahuila, where 10 miners died after flooding. That incident exposed widespread safety gaps in Mexican mining, as laborers often work without essential protections or official oversight. Attempts to pump out water and stabilize the shaft failed, and the bodies were never recovered.
Mexico’s deadliest mining disaster occurred in February 2006 at the Pasta de Conchos mine in Coahuila, where an explosion claimed 65 lives.
