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COPIAPO: The 33 miners trapped deep underground in northern Chile may be brought back to the surface as early as November, according to a document provided to workers on the various rescue efforts.
The quickest possible route to the surface is the rescue workers' "Plan C," which involves a football-pitch-size oil drilling platform that Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has said is expected to begin work by September 18 -- Chile's Independence Day.
This plan reduces the rescue time to two months, at best, having to only drill some 597 metres (1,958 feet) to reach the trapped workers.
The process, in which miners can escape one-by-one in a small cage winched up to ground level through a hole that is still yet to be drilled, should be ready "in early November in the best case scenario or early December if there are problems," said the document seen by AFP.
Inside the cage the miners will be provided oxygen, water and food, and even an artificial light and a communication device for their ascent to the surface.
Officials have previously warned that rescuing the 33 miners could take up to four months, leaving them to survive below ground potentially until Christmas.
"Plan B," which began its installation phase Sunday, still has to reach down 620 metres (2,034 feet) to get to them, but would be quicker than the three-to-four months that the original "Plan A" is set to take.
This effort, the only one of the three options already in the drilling phase, requires burrowing 700 metres (2,300 feet) into the mine where the 32 Chileans and one Bolivian are waiting, and later having to widen that hole to
accommodate a rescue.
So far on Sunday, only 131 feet (40 metres) of the "Plan A" rescue shaft had been drilled, however, as relatives of the trapped workers held an emotional vigil nearby to mark the one-month anniversary since the cave-in that entombed them.
The ambitious rescue, code-named "Operation San Lorenzo" after a martyred Christian saint, has received help from the US space agency NASA, with its experience in keeping astronauts healthy and sane during long periods in small spaceships.
-AFP/wk
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