Compañía Minera San Esteban Primera workers at this mine were paid around 20% higher wages than at other Chilean mines, due to its poor safety record. The San José Mine is located 45 kilometers northwest of Copiapó. It began operations in 1889. In 1957, Jorge Kemeny Letay, a Hungarian immigrant founded the San Esteban Mining Company (). The San José Mine () is a small copper-gold mine located near Copiapó, Atacama Region, Chile. The mine was the site of a 2010 collapse which trapped 33 miners underground. Its workings are reached by a long sloping roadway with many spiral turns (a diagram shows ten turns),
Pasta de Conchos mine disaster the miners were trapped. The National Mining and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMSRM) stated that the trapped miners were approximately below ground, via a mile-long horizontal shaft. Grupo México released a statement saying that the miners were about below ground when the explosion occurred. Guadalupe Rosales Martínez, the sister of a worker saved from the mine opening, told the "Los Angeles Times" that the workers had previously complained about a gas leak in the mine. Norma Vitela, the wife of a mine worker trapped inside the mine, told "The Miami Herald" that her husband complained about the same leak. By February