| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
COPIAPO, Chile: Work began on Tuesday on plans to free 33 trapped Chilean miners, but as families passed poignant messages down a narrow hole, the men were not being told it could take four months to rescue them.
The engineer in charge of the rescue mission at the San Jose gold and copper mine, Andres Sougarret, said he was keeping secret from the miners his estimate they may have to tough it out deep underground until Christmas.
There are fears for the miners' ability to endure for long in a hot, dank shelter 700 metres deep inside the mine in northern Chile.
For 17 days since a cave-in August 5 blocked the exit to the mine, there was no sign they were alive.
Then on Sunday a small probe drill broke through and reached them, and they sent up messages saying, against all odds, they had survived and were overjoyed at the thought of being rescued.
The eight-centimetre wide drill hole has been reinforced and since Monday was being used to deliver water and nutrients to the miners.
It was also serving as the sole channel of communication: an intercom system functioning since Tuesday.
"The umbilical cord is ready," Sougarret said. "Now comes the engineering design, the topography - and then begins the work of drilling."
Engineers plan to use an industrial-sized hydraulic bore to make a shaft 33 centimetres in diameter that will then be expanded to 66 centimetres - wide enough to extract each of the men, one by one.
Negotiating layers of rock and drilling in a way to prevent another collapse in the unstable mine were challenges that could drag out the operation over the rest of the year.
The miners said they were hungry after surviving on emergency rations of two tablespoons of tuna fish and half a cup of milk every 48 hours. Water had been trickling into the mine, too.
"They asked for food, and toothbrushes and something for their eyes," said Mining Minister Laurence Golborne.
They also rejoiced on learning colleagues were alive and escaped the August 5 cave-in unharmed. Their shouts of "Viva Chile" and rendition of the national anthem were aired on Chilean television.
Trapped miner Luis Urzua could be heard telling Golborne: "Mr. Minister, we're fine. We look forward to being rescued."
Paula Newman, a doctor in charge of monitoring the miners' health, said glucose solution and medication to prevent ulcers had been sent to them. Later, they were to be given high-protein, high-calorie foods.
"They are all in perfect health, and none are traumatised," said Newman. "Their complaints are much less than we could have expected."
Chilean officials said they had asked the US space agency NASA for help in supplying the miners with nourishment.
"The situation is very similar to the one experienced by the astronauts, who spend months on end in the space station," Health minister Jaime Manalich told reporters.
How the miners will hold up psychologically for the prolonged rescue was a big question mark, however.
It was thought the group had illumination from a lighting system rigged up to a truck engine. Colleagues on the surface believed they were not completely trapped in their small living-room sized refuge but could roam some 1.5 to 1.8 kilometres of tunnels.
Friends and relatives kept up an emotional vigil outside the mine. For two weeks, they had prayed and left messages at the entrance.
Now, they were sending personal messages to loved ones beneath their feet to lift up their spirits - while avoiding talk of the gruelling long weeks and months that lay ahead before any reunion.
"Hi daddy, it's Romina, I'm so happy you're well. This is one of the greatest joys of my life," Romina, 20, wrote to her 63-year-old father Mario Gomez.
"We'd love to send you a football, but it won't fit in the drill hole," said another, from Carolina to her father Franklin Lobos.
As the rescue operation picked up, the government was looking critically at safety equipment in the mind.
Golborne, the mining minister, claimed that, if an emergency ladder had been provided, the miners might have been able to escape the shaft's collapse.
"They tried to get out. They didn't have a ladder to do so," he said.
San Esteban, the company that owns the mine, denied any negligence.
"There have never been any catastrophes like this before. These workers are trained and they have safety measures necessary for their protection against events of this type," one of the company's executives, Alejandro Bohn, said.
- AFP/de
|
