Human and technical odyssey awaits trapped miners in Chile

By Mauricio Weibel Aug 23, 2010, 19:38 GMT

   Santiago - The rescue of the 33 miners trapped 700 metres below the ground in northern Chile is set to be a technical and human odyssey always threatened by the possibility of new collapses.

The mood was good Monday a day after the miners, who have been trapped since the shaft they were working in collapsed on August 5, were confirmed to be alive. Rescue teams finally reached them via a small hole through which they could pass messages and see the miners with a camera.

But the engineers in charge of the challenging operation stressed Monday that the copper mine in San Jose de Copiapo, in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, remains very unstable in the face of geological faults and of underground water.

'What we are going to do is a vertical excavation. That's the quickest thing, with mechanical equipment,' head engineer Andre Sougarret said Monday.

   The operation, which could take three to four months, was set to start Tuesday using the state-of-the-art drill Xtrata, especially brought in from South Africa.

The machine is to make an initial hole with a diameter of around 25 centimetres, which will later be enlarged to 66 centimetres. That space would be enough to pull the miners up to the surface.

Drilling is set to advance some 15 metres per day, so that miners could be back home for Christmas, said engineer Miguel Fort.

But drilling that vertical 700-metre hole only solves part of the problem. Rescue teams also have to finish drilling three further holes, about 10 centimetres wide, through which they are to provide the miners with food, water and above all moral support.

'Psychological support will be key to the miners' health,' said psychologists working with rescue teams.

Being locked up for weeks 700 metres below the ground, in a humid, warm and dark habitat, can cause depression, panic attacks and various further problems that make survival more difficult for the miners.

For this reason, it will be vital to keep them busy in tasks that aid the rescue, and in daily contact with their families through letters, recordings and photographs. Every item will be carried underground in a 'pigeon,' a small tube that is set to move back and forth from the surface.

Outside the mine where the 32 Chilean miners and one Bolivian miner had been working at the time of the accident, the mood was upbeat. In the Esperanza camp, set up by relatives of the miners in the wake of the collapse, there was great joy and optimism.

'They can hold on four months and more down there,' said Sandro Rojas, whose brother Esteban Rojas is among the trapped miners along with three other members of his family.