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.
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Watches Chile's miners heroes, but fame can be fleeting

Chile's miners heroes, but fame can be fleeting


AP – Patricio Sepulveda, a corporal of the police special operations unit, center, talks to fellow officers
SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – A torrent of emotions awaits the 33 miners when they finally rejoin the outside world.
As trying as it has been for them to survive underground for more than two months, their gold and copper mine is familiar territory. Once out of the shaft, they'll face challenges so bewildering, no amount of coaching can fully prepare them.
They'll be celebrated at first, embraced by their families and pursued by more than 750 journalists who have converged on the mine, competing for interviews and images to feed to a world intensely curious to hear their survival story.
They've been invited to visit presidential palaces, take all-expense paid vacations and appear on countless TV shows.
Contracts for book and movie deals are pending, along with job offers. More money than they could dream of is already awaiting their signature.
Right now they are true heroes. Some will become celebrities if they want to. But eventually, a new reality will set in — and for most, it won't be anything like the life they knew before the mine collapsed above their heads.
"Before being heroes, they are victims," University of Santiago psychologist Sergio Gonzalez told The Associated Press. "These people who are coming out of the bottom of the mine are different people ... and their families are too."
A tentative but secret list has been drafted regarding which miners should come out first when the extraction begins in a rescue capsule, probably on Wednesday.
One by one they will take a twisting, 20-minute ride the half-mile (1 kilometer) up to a rock-strewn desert moonscape and into the embrace of those they love. The capsule is expected to rotate 350 degrees some 10 to 12 times through curves in the 28-inch-diameter (710-millimeter-diameter) escape hole on its way up.
Chile's government has promised each miner at least six months of psychological support.
"All of them will have to confront the media and fame, and will encounter families that aren't the same as when they were trapped," Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. "All of them will live through very difficult situations of adaptation."
At first they'll feel besieged, poorly treated by the media and perhaps overwhelmed by even the attention of their own families, predicted Dr. Claus Behn, a University of Chile physiologist with expertise on disorders stemming from surviving extreme situations. Society will "demand to know every minute detail, and they're going to offer enormous quantities of money and popularity."
The problem with being a hero is that "if you look down from the mountaintop, all you see is the abyss. It would make anyone feel vertigo," Behn said.
The miners have had the support of a team of psychologists while underground, but that was designed mostly to help them endure the extreme conditions.
Last week, they also got an hour a day of training in dealing with the media, including practice with "ugly, bad and indiscreet" questions about their time underground, their personal lives and their families, said Alejandro Pino, a former reporter who was part of a support team provided by Chile's workplace insurance association.
"I see them doing extraordinarily well," Pino said. "They're ready."
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Watches this Chileans hope to begin rescue of miners Wednesday

Chileans hope to begin rescue of miners Wednesday
SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – After more than two months trapped deep in a Chilean mine, 33 miners are enjoying Sunday tantalizingly close to rescue.

Drillers have completed an escape shaft, and Chile's mining minister says a video inspection shows the hole's walls are firm enough to allow the men to be hoisted out as early as Wednesday.
Officials said late Saturday that workers first must reinforce the top few hundred feet (almost 100 meters) of the tunnel and had begun welding steel pipes for that purpose.
The completion of the 28-inch(71-centimeter)-diameter escape shaft Saturday morning caused bedlam in the tent city known as "Camp Hope," where the miners' relatives had held vigil for an agonizing 66 days since a cave-in sealed off the gold and copper mine Aug. 5.
Miners videotaped the piston-powered hammer drill's breakthrough at 2,041 feet (622 meters) underground and could be seen cheering and embracing, the drillers said.
On the surface, the rescuers chanted, danced and sprayed champagne so excitedly that some of their hardhats tumbled off.
Later, a video inspection of the shaft gave rescuers enough confidence in the tunnel's stability that they decided they will encase only its first 315 feet (96 meters).
The plan is to insert 16 sections of half-inch(1.27 centimeter)-thick steel pipe into the top of the hole, which curves like a waterfall at first before becoming nearly vertical for most of its descent into a chamber deep in the mine. That work would begin immediately, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said.

AP – A relative of a trapped miner gestures after the announcement that a drill reached the trapped miners
Then an escape capsule built by Chilean naval engineers, its spring-loaded wheels pressing against the hole's walls, can be lowered into it via a winch and the trapped miners brought up one by one.
"All rescues have their risks," Golborne said. "You can never say that an accident couldn't happen."
Golborne and other government officials had insisted that determining whether to encase the whole shaft, only part of it or none of it would be a technical decision, based on the evidence and the expertise of a team of eight geologists and mining engineers.
Encasing the full shaft would have added another week or so before the rescue could begin — if it could actually be done.
While the possibility of an accident can never be ruled out, the hole "is in very good condition, and doesn't need to be cased completely," Golborne said.
The political consequences were inescapable. Chile's success story would evaporate if a miner should get stuck on the way up for reasons that might have been avoided.
Some miners' families wanted the entire shaft lined with pipe, but some engineers involved said the risk of the capsule getting jammed in the unreinforced hole was less than the risk of the pipes getting jammed and ruining their hard-won exit route.
Many experts doubted whether encasing the entire shaft was even possible.
"Based on my experiences it cannot be done. Nor does it need to be done," Brandon Fisher, president of the U.S. company that built the drill that broke through, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"The rock is very confident down there," he added.
Health Minister Jaime Manalich said the miners' anxiety is growing about starting their rescue, an operation that should take about a day and a half to complete as they are pulled out one by one in a specially built capsule.
Manalich also confirmed that a list has been drawn up suggesting the order in which the 33 miners should be rescued. The final order will be determined by a Navy special forces paramedic who will be lowered into the mine to prepare the men for their journey.
The completion of the escape shaft thrilled Chileans, who have come to see the rescue drama as a test of the nation's character and pride.
Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101010/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_chile_mine_collapse

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

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