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COPIAPO, Chile: The 33 men trapped in a collapsed Chilean mine were to finally hear the voices of their loved ones on Sunday in their first phone contact with relatives since they were discovered alive.
"On Sunday, there will contact between one family member and each miner, who will have the chance to speak for at least a minute and have some personal contact," Mines Minister Laurence Golborne said Saturday.
To date, the only contact between relatives and the men, stuck 700 metres underground for 24 days, has been through notes and official intermediaries.
Chilean rescuers were preparing to start the months-long task of drilling a shaft to free the men, as officials push for an accelerated rescue plan.
Final work ahead of the drilling, scheduled to begin early Monday, was underway amid reports that President Sebastian Pinera is pressuring rescuers to get the miners out before September 18, the bicentennial anniversary of Chile's independence from Spanish colonial rule.
The miners were trapped on August 5 when the main entrance ramp to the San Jose gold and silver mine in northern Chile collapsed.
Under current plans, an Australian-made hydraulic bore will drill a hole 66 centimetres wide to pull the miners out one at a time from the hot and damp shelter where they are huddled underground.
"The shaft we're drilling to the shelter will go down 702 metres in a straight line" to the trapped miners, the engineer in charge of the rescue operation, Andre Sougarret, told AFP on Saturday.
Sougarret said the drilling operation was expected to last three to four months, in line with previous estimates.
The hydraulic bore drills at a maximum rate of 20 metres per day. The initial narrow shaft it will dig will have to be doubled in diameter to allow a man to pass through, Sougarret explained.
Another option being considered suggests broadening an already existing shaft some 12 centimetres in diameter, about 300 metres from the emergency shelter where the miners are confined.
"Plan B has already been designed," Health Minister Jaime Manalich said Saturday, adding that details of the alternative plan would be released soon.
According to Geotec, the company that owns the equipment that drilled that shaft, by expanding the hole the men could be freed in about 60 days, two months ahead of early estimates.
Geotec manager Walter Herrera said on Saturday that government experts were studying that proposal. But Golborne rejected reports of a possible rescue within the next month.
"We have reviewed 10 different options," he told Radio Cooperativa. "Up to now there is no alternative... that would allow us to get them out in 30 days."
Officials are also looking at a plan to drill where the main entrance ramp to the mine collapsed, though some engineers fear the site remains unstable.
Golborne said that as the Australian-made bore goes to work, engineers will also widen a third existing access shaft to the miners' shelter from 10.2 centimetres to 30.5 centimetres so bigger objects can be sent down to them.
There were plans to send down MP3 players with speakers, a small video projector with DVDs that include recorded soccer games, as well as dice and clothes, Golborne said.
He said special folding cots would also be lowered so the miners could sleep more comfortably.
Rescuers contacted the miners through the narrow shaft a week ago and have been sending them fresh water, messages and supplies ever since.
Most were shown in good spirits in a video they sent to their families at the surface on Thursday.
Chilean authorities have already taken steps to boost the men's mental resilience for the tough time that still lies ahead by reaching out to groups and people with experience in long isolation.
Four officials from the US space agency NASA were due to arrive in Chile to provide expertise, while submarine commanders in Chile's navy have already given advice.
- AFP/de
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