Police in South Australia are investigating after a man's body was found at an open-cut mine south of Coober Pedy, with major crime detectives and forensic experts called in to assist local officers. The cause of death has not yet been established, and the man's identity has not been released, making this a significant developing case in a remote outback region already associated with a number of unresolved disappearances.

Emergency services were alerted just before 9.30am on Thursday, and a postmortem examination is due to take place on Friday, after which police will prepare a report for the coroner. Coober Pedy, roughly 850km north of Adelaide, is known internationally for its opal mines and underground homes, but has also been linked to several cold cases, including the disappearances of Andrew "Wilbur" Williamson in 2003 and Anna Rosa Liva, Karen Williams and Colin Williams in the 1990s, as well as the 2008 death of a three-year-old boy found in a disused mineshaft.