Search and rescue personnel in Colombia completed recovery operations on Saturday after a methane gas explosion trapped a group of miners earlier this week inside an informal coal mine, according to the country’s mining regulatory agency. The regulator said the effort ended with the recovery of four bodies at the Mata Siete mine in Guacheta, a coal-mining area roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Bogota.
Colombia’s mining regulator said two other miners’ bodies had been found the day before and were turned over to the Colombian Attorney General’s Office investigative unit. With those earlier recoveries completed as well, authorities said the search-and-recovery operation for the trapped miners concluded after Saturday’s round of findings.
Authorities said the Thursday explosion was caused by a buildup of methane gas at the Mata Siete mine. Methane accumulation in underground workings can create conditions in which a gas release triggers a blast, and officials tied this incident to that hazard at the mine site.
The mining regulator has also described the Mata Siete mine’s legal status in the lead-up to the blast. The National Mining Agency previously said the mine operated with an “expired mining permit” and engaged in “illegal coal mining,” and it said the agency had issued a closure order in March 2019.
In its latest public update, the mining regulator said the explosion remained under investigation, leaving open what role, if any, other mine-safety conditions or operational factors may have played in the incident.