The minister added that although the country's mining regulator had carried out an inspection in the area in July, it was not able to detect the "over-exploitation."
"That also makes us think that we have to reformulate what our inspection processes are," she said.
"We want to be emphatic that, to date, this hypothesis as reported by Sernageomin has not been determined as the direct cause of the sinkhole. The hydrogeological and mining studies will provide the answers we are looking for today," Lundin said.
"Different events that could have caused the sinkhole are being investigated, including the abnormal rainfall recorded during the month of July, which is relevant," added Lundin.
