A 42-year-old Mexican miner was pulled alive from the flooded depths of a gold and silver mine in northern Mexico on April 8 after surviving nearly two weeks in waist-deep water with almost no food, in what rescuers and officials are calling an extraordinary feat of endurance.
Francisco Zapata Nájera was working in the Santa Fe (also known as El Rosario) mine when a tailings dam breach on March 25 sent a torrent of muddy waste and water rushing into the underground tunnels, triggering a partial collapse. Of the 25 miners inside at the time, 21 escaped quickly. Four were trapped roughly 300 meters (about 985 feet) underground.
Zapata Nájera endured the longest, standing in an air pocket in a flooded section of the mine for approximately 13 to 14 days. Rescue teams from Mexico’s Army, Navy divers, National Guard and civil protection units worked continuously for more than 300 hours, pumping water, exploring over 3.2 kilometers of tunnels and using exploratory drilling to reach him.
Divers spotted the faint blinking light from his headlamp in the murky water around 1:50 p.m. on April 7. Heavy flooding delayed his extraction by roughly 21 hours. Dramatic footage released by authorities shows the calm miner standing in waist-deep water as the specialized divers approach.
“How are you? How are you?” one rescuer asks. “I didn’t lose faith, I didn’t lose faith,” Zapata Nájera replies in a steady voice, repeating the phrase for emphasis.
On-site medics stabilized him with water, food and oxygen before he was brought to the surface, wrapped in a thermal blanket and assisted onto a transport. He was then airlifted by Mexican Air Force helicopter to a hospital in Mazatlán, where doctors described him as frail but stable, suffering mainly from dehydration and exhaustion. He was able to walk with assistance and has since been reunited with family.
Earlier in the operation, another trapped miner, JosĂ© Alejandro Cástulo ColĂn, around 44, was rescued alive after about five days. A third miner was later found dead. As of April 9, search efforts continue for the fourth and final missing miner.
The Santa Fe mine is operated by Industrial Minera Sinaloa. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly described Zapata Nájera’s survival as “incredible” while acknowledging the tragedy for the others.
Zapata Nájera’s ordeal has drawn comparisons to other famous mining rescues, including the 2010 Chilean miners who survived 69 days underground, though the severe flooding and tailings mud here made conditions especially perilous for both the trapped workers and the rescue teams.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the tailings dam failure, which has once again spotlighted safety concerns in Mexico’s mining industry.
Zapata Nájera remains in hospital recovering, while operations to locate the last missing miner proceed without interruption.
