Watch Dramatic endgame nears for trapped Chile miners

Dramatic endgame nears for trapped Chile miners


SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – They'll come up one by one in green overalls bearing their names on their chests — first the fittest, then the weakest, twisting in a steel cage that proved itself with four flawless test runs deep into the earth.
The dramatic endgame hastened Monday for the 33 Chilean miners who have braved two months underground, with rescuers reinforcing the escape shaft and the 13-foot-tall rescue chamber sliding, as planned, nearly all the way to the trapped men.
"It didn't even raise any dust," Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said.
If all goes well, everything will be in place late Tuesday to begin pulling the men out, officials said. The lead psychologist for the rescue team recommended the extractions begin at dawn Wednesday. No official decision was announced, but Andre Sougarret, the rescue team coordinator, tweeted Monday evening that "today the miners sleep their last night together!"
On Monday, the Phoenix I capsule — the biggest of three built by Chilean navy engineers, named for the mythic bird that rose from ashes — made its first test run after the top 180 feet of the shaft was encased in tubing, the rescue leader said.
Then the empty capsule was winched 2,000 feet, just 40 feet short of the shaft system that has been the miners' refuge since an Aug. 5 collapse.
"We didn't send it (all the way) down because we could risk that someone will jump in," a grinning Golborne told reporters.
Engineers had planned to extend the piping nearly twice as far, but they decided to stop after the sleeve — the hole is angled 11 degrees off vertical at its top before plumbing down, like a waterfall — became jammed during a probe.
Rescue team psychologist Alberto Iturra said he recommended the first man be pulled out at dawn because the miners are to be taken by Chilean air force helicopters to the nearby city of Copiapo and fog tends to enshroud the mine at night.


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It is a roughly 10-minute flight, said Lt. Col. Aldo Carbone, the choppers' squadron commander. He said the pilots have night-vision goggles but will not fly unless it is clear. Ambulances will be ready for backup. The drive would take about an hour.
Officials have drawn up a secret list of which miners should come out first, but the order could change after paramedics and a mining expert first descend in the capsule to evaluate the men and oversee the journey upward.
First out will be the four fittest of frame and mind, said health minister Jaime Manalich. Should glitches occur, these men will be best prepared to ride them out and tell their comrades what to expect.
Next will be 10 who are weakest or ill. One miner suffers from hypertension. Another is a diabetic, and others have dental and respiratory infections or skin lesions from the mine's oppressive humidity.
The last out is expected to be Luiz Urzua, who was shift chief when the men became entombed, several family members of miners told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not want to upset government officials.
The men will take a twisting, 20-minute ride for 2,041 feet up to the surface. It should take about an hour for the rescue capsule to make a round trip, deputy rescue coordinator Rene Aguilar told The Associated Press.
Golborne said all would be ready by 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Officials wanted to make sure the concrete around the steel tubing at the top of the shaft set, he said.
Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101012/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_chile_mine_collapse;_ylt=AiLJkNIf_mZoO62d6dbIAqes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNtaGpiZDU0BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAxMDEyL2x0X2NoaWxlX21pbmVfY29sbGFwc2UEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMyBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNkcmFtYXRpY2VuZGc-

We are see the Chile rescuers prepare escape shaft for miners' exit

Chile rescuers prepare escape shaft for miners' exit


COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) – Chile's 33 trapped miners and their relatives were counting down the hours on Monday as rescuers worked to finish reinforcing an escape shaft to avoid a last minute disaster as their two month ordeal draws to an end.
Engineers expect to finish lining part of the narrow, nearly 2,050 foot-long (625-meter) shaft with metal tubes early on Monday. Then they will do test runs with special escape capsules, and the government aims to start hoisting the men to freedom one by one on Wednesday.
They are installing the tubes to head off the risk of rocks from the side of the drill shaft falling down onto the capsules dubbed "Phoenix" after the mythical bird, and blocking them from reaching the surface.
"I'm so tired. It's been far too many days doing nothing, just sitting waiting," said Alicia Campos, whose son Daniel Herrera is among the trapped miners, as she lined up for a fish sandwich at the tent settlement near the mine entrance dubbed "Camp Hope."
She wants her son to take up another profession.
Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said on Sunday rescuers could start lifting the miners to the surface on Tuesday evening if all went well, as one of the world's most complex rescue operations and most stunning survival stories nears its climax.
President Sebastian Pinera, who has ordered a revamp of mine safety regulations in the wake of the accident, has said he plans to visit the mine on Tuesday. One of the 33 miners is a Bolivian national, and Bolivia's President Evo Morales has vowed to visit the mine for his rescue

Reuters – A relative of the 33 miners trapped deep underground in a copper and gold mine is hugged by a policeman
President Sebastian Pinera, who has ordered a revamp of mine safety regulations in the wake of the accident, has said he plans to visit the mine on Tuesday. One of the 33 miners is a Bolivian national, and Bolivia's President Evo Morales has vowed to visit the mine for his rescue.
Rescue officials said they would push ahead boring a separate shaft with a rig usually used to drill for oil as a back-up plan, just in case there are any complications. They have halted a third drill.
In a land still recovering from a devastating February earthquake, celebrations broke out across Chile on Saturday when the drill broke through 65 days after the August 5 collapse at the small gold and copper mine in the far northern Atacama desert.
PRAYERS, VIGILS, WAITING
After weeks of prayers, vigils and agonizing waiting, anxiety is giving way to joy as wives, parents and children count down to reunions with their loved ones.
The men, who have set a world record for the length of time workers have survived underground after a mining accident, have been doing exercises to keep their weight down in time for their ascent.
They will journey to the surface in capsules just wider than a man's shoulders with their eyes closed and will immediately be given dark glasses to avoid damaging their eyesight after spending so long in a dimly-lit tunnel.
They will be given astronaut-style medical checks in a field hospital set up at the mine. Then they will be able to spend some time with their families, before being flown by helicopter to nearby Copiapo to be stabilized at another hospital.
Helicopter pilots conducted practice flights in the dark overnight.
The miners are in remarkably good health, although some have developed skin infections.
Health Minister Jaime Manalich said at least two rescuers, one of them a paramedic, would travel down in the capsules to help prepare the men for their journey to freedom.
He said the government had chosen the most psychologically stable and experienced of the miners to be the first to enter the capsules and face the harrowing, claustrophobic journey.
"They have to be psychologically mature, have a great deal of mining experience and be able to handle a quick training on how to use the harness and oxygen mask in the Phoenix capsule," Manalich said.
The government brought in experts from the U.S. NASA space agency to help keep the men mentally and physically fit during the rescue, which has gripped the world and drawn messages of support from Pope Benedict and World Cup soccer stars.
Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101011/wl_nm/us_chile_miners

Watches Chile miners to be evacuated soon

Chile miners to be evacuated soon


Euphoria prevailed among relatives of 33 miners trapped for more than two months in northern Chile, after authorities said their evacuation will start on Tuesday at the earliest.

Health Minister Jaime Manalich set the date of the rescue for Tuesday, though another government official, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne, struck a more cautious tone, saying only that the drill closest to the men trapped some 700 metres underground would reach them within 24 hours.

The drill, the T-130, was 585 metres from the miners' underground shelter early Friday.
"We hope to break through (to the shelter) within the next 24 hours. The speed will depend on how fast the hammer drill can be changed and the drilling velocity; we have to reach the breakthrough point with less velocity," Golborne said.

"We think it will happen tonight or Saturday morning, but we don't have the exact time," he said, adding that after contact is made the tunnel will be analysed to determine if it needs to be lined.

"If not, the timeframe for starting the rescue would be three days, but it could extend to eight days if they decide to (add metal casing to the tunnel). We have a team of geologists to analyse this issue," Golborne said.

But the health minister's prediction had already sparked joy and renewed hope among the relatives.

"It's a very good news, since we were all expecting them to break through first and then give us a date (for bringing the men to the surface)," Lilianet Ramirez, wife of miner Mario Gomez, said.

"I'm very happy ... Supposedly after the breakthrough it was going to take another eight days to get them out, but if that's been moved up I'm happy," Jessica Yanez, wife of Esteban Rojas, said.

The 33 miners were trapped Aug 5 when a landslide caused a tunnel at the San Jose copper and gold mine in northern Chile to collapse above them, but they managed to survive by taking refuge in a large underground shelter.

Rescuers made contact Aug 22 with the trapped miners, who have been receiving food, water, medical supplies and extra oxygen via small bore holes.
coppied by http://www.deccanherald.com/content/103468/chile-miners-evacuated-soon.html

Watches this Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits

Rescue workers near their goal as Chile awaits


Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- There may be light at the end of a nearly completed tunnel for the 33 men trapped since August 5 almost half a mile below ground, with rescuers expected to reach them within a day, Chile's mining minister said Friday afternoon.
"Hopefully before that," Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters about the time when a rescue drill is expected to pierce the roof of the mine. As of Friday afternoon, it was 40 meters (about 130 feet) away. "Maybe tomorrow morning, early Saturday. We have to wait and see."
Once the mine has been reached, the rescue process could begin within three to four days, Golborne told reporters. But mine engineers must decide first whether they need to encase the shaft with steel tubing to prevent rockfalls and further collapses during the extraction process. "If we do a full casing of the hole, those three to four days could go to eight to 10 days," Golborne told reporters.
One of the rescue coordinators, Rene Aguilar, an engineer for state copper company Codelco, said this week they may encase just the first 100 meters (328 feet) of the shaft, a process that could take just 10 hours.
Before anyone can be rescued, the hole must be widened so that the rescue capsule -- dubbed the Phoenix -- can land cleanly inside the tunnel without getting hung up on obstructions, Golborne said. To accomplish that, explosives will be lowered to the miners for use in widening the shaft, said Golborne, who expressed little concern that the subterranean pyrotechnics would pose any danger to the men.
"We have to take into consideration that we are talking here about miners that have experience, many of them are licensed to use explosives, they know how to manipulate them, they have already made the holes that they need to set the right quantities of explosives. ... So it will be a very controlled explosion that will be made after we break into the tunnel."
Then, authorities will lower a doctor and a rescuer into the chamber, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. Medical and rescue personnel will be in place to start extracting and treating the miners Monday night, he said.
Once the miners have been extracted, they will undergo about two hours of health checks at a field hospital set up at the mine.
Barring complications, it will take about 24 to 36 hours to remove all the miners through the 2,300-foot hole, Manalich said. They will then be flown by helicopter to a hospital in the town of Copiapo -- approximately a 15-minute flight.
coppied by http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/08/chile.trapped.miners/index.html?hpt=T1

Trapped Chile miners get supplies

Watch Trapped Chile miners get supplies

Thirty-three Chilean miners trapped underground for the past 18 days have begun accepting food, water and oxgen from above ground.

The deliveries on Monday come after Sebastian Pinera, the president, announced that all the miners were still alive, and had made contact through a written note attached to a drill that signalled the good news.

Despite the dramatic breakthrough, the chief engineer in charge of the rescue operation, Andres Sougarret, said it would take at least four months of drilling to bring out the trapped miners, and on Monday, rescue teams worked to gauge their state of mind and brace them for the long wait ahead.

Through a newly installed communications system, each of the men spoke and
reported feeling hungry but well, except for one with a stomach problem, a
Chilean official said.

Pinera said the nation was "crying with excitement and joy'' after engineers broke through on Sunday to the men's refuge.

It had been 18 days since a landslide at the gold and copper mine caused a tunnel to collapse and entombed them more than 2,200 feet below ground.

Doctors and psychological experts meanwhile were trying to safeguard the sanity of the miners in the months to come, and said they were implementing a plan that included keeping them informed and busy.

"They need to understand what we know up here at the surface, that it will take many weeks for them to reach the light,'' health minister Jaime Manalich told the Associated Press.

Public pressure
The Chilean President said the entire nation was elated to receive the good news.
President Pinera has sacked top officials of Chile's mining regulator and vowed a major overhaul of the agency in light of the accident.
"Obviously, there is a degree of happiness," a beaming Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told state television from the mine entrance, where relatives of the trapped men have been camped out for over a fortnight.

"I thank the miners for their bravery, for their courage in holding out more than two weeks in the depths of the mountain," Pinera said.

"They'll come out thin and dirty, but whole and strong, because the miners have shown they have courage and mettle, which is what has kept them together."

Serious mining accidents are rare in Chile, but the government says the San Jose mine, owned by local private company Compania Minera San Esteban Primera, has suffered a series of mishaps and up to 16 miners have lost their lives in recent years.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/08/201082323048202567.html

Trapped miners in Chile 'are alive'

Watch Trapped miners in Chile 'are alive'


Mining accidents are on the rise in Chile [AFP]
Sebastian Pinera, the Chilean president, has said that all 33 miners trapped underground for the past 17 days are still alive.

Pinera announced on Sunday that the trapped miners had made contact through a written note attached to a drill that signalled the good news.

"All 33 of us are well inside the shelter," Pinera read, waving a message scribbled in red pencil sent by the miners 700 meters (2,300 feet) below the ground.

"This came out of the ground. It's a message from our miners telling us they are alive, that they are together."

Relief

His words were met by a roar of cheers, as friends and families wept and hugged each other in relief after days of fading hopes.

Until Sunday, there had been no word from them and hopes for their survival were fading.

The miners have been trapped since the collapse of a small gold and copper mine near the northern city of Copiapo on August 5.

"It would take at least four months of drilling to reach and bring out the trapped miners"

Andres Sougarret, chief engineer of rescue effort

Mine officials and family had hoped the workers were able to escape to the shelter when the walls collapsed but there were fears that air and food supplies would be limited.

Despite the dramatic breakthrough, the chief engineer in charge of the rescue operation, Andres Sougarret, said it would take at least four months of drilling to reach and bring out the trapped miners.

Pablo Fernandez, a journalist in the Chilean capital, Santiago, told Al Jazeera that rescue effort was far from over.

"The next step is to establish direct contact with the miners who have been trapped for 17 days.

"In the next few hours, the authorities hope to have audio and video of the workers, also clean water, medicines and a special nutritional gel will be sent down the shaft."

Authorities concur that it could take up to 120 days to dig a new tunnel to rescue the miners.

Public pressure

Fernandez said that the note which was taped to a drill had brought relief to government officials who had been under severe pressure from the public.

"This represents a big relief for the Chilean government who have been under mounting pressure from family members and relatives of the trapped miners, because they thought that not enough was being done."

President Pinera has sacked top officials of Chile's mining regulator and vowed a major overhaul of the agency in light of the accident.

"Obviously, there is a degree of happiness," a beaming Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told state television from the mine entrance, where relatives of the trapped men have been camped out for over a fortnight.

"I thank the miners for their bravery, for their courage in holding out more than two weeks in the depths of the mountain," Pinera said.

"They'll come out thin and dirty, but whole and strong, because the miners have shown they have courage and mettle, which is what has kept them together."

Serious mining accidents are rare in Chile, but the government says the San Jose mine, owned by local private company Compania Minera San Esteban Primera, has suffered a series of mishaps and up to 16 miners have lost their lives in recent years.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/08/2010822202238700399.html