Knocks raise hopes trapped Chilean miners still alive

[Judi Lynn]

Knocks raise hopes trapped Chilean miners still alive
August 22 2010 , 7:41:00

Hopes of finding 33 miners alive more than two weeks after they were trapped in a mine revived today after rescuers said they believed they had heard knocking on a drill. Rescue workers said a small-bore drill had reached nearly 700 meters underground and had perforated a tunnel near to where the miners are believed to have sought refuge after the mine caved in on August 5. There has been no contact with them since the collapse at a small gold and copper mine near the northern city of Copiapo in Chile.

"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. He added, however: "There is nothing concrete ... We are talking about tubes 700 meters long, so the knocks could be falling stones."

"Spirits are up," one rescue worker told state television. "Some of our companions said they heard them hit the drill and they answered. That was all the communication there was." The miners are 4.5 miles (7 km) inside the winding mine and about 700 meters vertically underground. Authorities hope the miners took refuge in a shelter equipped with oxygen and are rationing their food and water.

Rescue workers say it could take 120 days to dig a new tunnel to reach the miners after the main mine ramp collapsed. The government said earlier this month that the likelihood of finding the miners alive was low. President Sebastian Pinera has sacked top officials of Chile's mining regulator and vowed a major overhaul of the agency in light of the accident.

http://www.sabcnews.com/portal/site/SABCNews/menuitem.5c4f8fe7ee929f602ea12ea1674daeb9/?vgnextoid=121e7317d8a9a210VgnVCM10000077d4ea9bRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&channelPath=World

Hope.

[Judi Lynn]

1. 33 trapped Chilean miners are alive after 17 days

33 trapped Chilean miners are alive after 17 days
Rescue workers say it could take 120 days to dig a new tunnel to reach the miners

updated 2 hours 3 minutes ago
Share Print Font: +-SANTIAGO — Thirty-three miners trapped underground for more than two weeks after a cave-in said they are all alive in a message tied to a drill, Chilean authorities said on Sunday.

President Sebastian Pinera said the piece of paper was tied to a drill that rescuers used to bore through to the area where the miners are located. But he said it will take months to get the trapped miners out.

"The 33 of us in the shelter are well," read the message held up by Pinera on television.

"It will take months (to get them out). It will take time, but it doesn't matter how long it takes, but to have a happy ending," the president said.

Relatives hugged and kissed as news of the message reverberated outside the entrance to the mine, where they have been camped out since the mine caved in on August 5.

Rescuers plan to send narrow plastic tubes down the narrow borehole with food, hydration gels and communications equipment. Deep in the mine, there are deposits of water and ventilation shafts that could help the miners survive.

Relatives of those trapped said rescue workers had found a message painted on a small drill used to perforate around 700 meters down into the mine confirming they were alive in the small gold and copper mine near the northern city of Copiapo.

Rescue workers said a small-bore drill had reached nearly 700 meters underground and had perforated a tunnel near to where the miners are believed to have sought refuge.

Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said rescue workers would lower a camera and microphones in a bid to locate and contact the miners.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38807555/ns/world_news-americas/

[rabs]

2. The miners are alive

today they attached a message to a drill that reached where they are trapped.



Pinera (left) flew to the mine scene this morning, he hold the message. (The sign says "We are okay in the refuge the 33 (of us)."


Relatives on hearing the news


--------------------

There is much rejoicing in Chile today. But they still have to rescue the miners. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thank you for these photos. Definitely the time for crossing fingers. n/t

[rabs]

4. Camera lowered, shows image of a miner

He is identified as Jimmy Sanchez, youngest of the 33 trapped miners.

The camera was damaged by water on the way down, so there was no audio. The seconds-long visual showed about nine miners in a blurry image.

Water and food will be sent down the shaft beginning in hours. Government is estimating it may take 3 or 4 MONTHS to extract the miners. Chilean government copper company CODELCO sending equipment tomorrow to begin drilling a 66-centimeter, parallel shaft 700 meters to where the miners are.

Sixty-six centimeters equals 25.98 inches. Suspect miners will have lost a lot of weight so should fit in a small cage that is to be lowered to extract the miners one by one. At least that is the plan.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Yikes. So the cage itself would be narrower. I read somewhere a couple of the miners

are (were!) quite heavy, but they would probably refuse to take all food in order to fit inside that cage!

Hope the psychologists they've brought to the area will have some superior suggestions for them in steering them through methods to refocus their emotions, and consciously release some of the pressure which had no where to go during 17 days of complete emotional trauma.

Hope there will be ideas coming in from other sources which might make rescue possible sooner. These men deserve every consideration.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Trapped Chilean Miners' First Request: Toothbrushes

Trapped Chilean Miners' First Request: Toothbrushes
Minister of Mines: Rescue Effort Could Be Longest in Chilean Mining History
By JEFFREY KOFMAN, LEE FERRAN and JESSICA HOPPER
Aug. 24, 2010

In perhaps an incidental sign of the long stay to come, the 33 miners trapped 2,258 feet below ground in Chile reportedly made an unusual first request when they were contacted by rescuers: Send toothbrushes.

They made the request, reported today by the Associated Press, as rescuers drilled a second six-inch-wide hole to the trapped miners to communicate with them via scribbled notes.

Standing near the entrance of the collapsed mine, Chile's minister of mines, Laurence Golborne, told "Good Morning America," in comments airing today, that there has never been a rescue effort in Chile as long as this one could be. Government officials have said the miners may not surface until around Christmas.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/trapped-chilean-miners-request-toothbrushes/story?id=11466546
Small video attached to short article.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Rescue delay hidden from trapped Chilean miners

Rescue delay hidden from trapped Chilean miners
By Moises Avila Roldan, AFP August 24, 2010 10:41 AM

COPIAPO, Chile - Work began Tuesday on a tunnel to free 33 Chilean miners, but as families passed poignant messages down a narrow hole, the trapped 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.

The prolonged operation has raised fears for the mental health of the miners, who are trapped in a hot shelter 700 meters (2,300) deep inside the mine in northern Chile that collapsed August 5.

~snip~
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 grueling 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 shovel, but it won't fit in the drill hole," said another, from Carolina to her husband Franklin Lobos.

The mine's owners said the disaster had put the company at risk of bankruptcy, and told a radio station they might not be able to pay the miners once they are rescued.

But Leonardo Farkas, an eccentric mining magnate, on Monday sent a check for 10,000 dollars to each of the 33 miners' families.
"When they're rescued, I'm going to throw a party," he said.

http://www.canada.com/news/national/Rescue+delay+hidden+from+trapped+Chilean+miners/3431312/story.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. Chile seeks advice from NASA on feeding

Chile seeks advice from NASA on feeding
August 25, 2010 - 3:44AM

Officials in Chile say they have asked the US space agency NASA for assistance in keeping 33 trapped miners supplied with food.

Health minister Jaime Manalich on Tuesday told reporters that the government contacted NASA "to learn from their experience in space" and to see if there are similar techniques they can use to provide nourishment to the mine workers.

"The situation is very similar the one experienced by the astronauts, who spend months on end in the space station," he said.

The copper and gold mine in San Jose de Copiapo, in Chile's Atacama Desert, collapsed on August 5, trapping the workers inside.

Food supplies were being sent through a narrow hole of about eight centimetres which engineers are working to widen. But they were not expected to create a passage wide enough to extract the men until Christmas.

The half-starved workers subsisted for more than two weeks on rations of two spoonfuls of tuna and a half-glass of milk every other day before official were able to start sending them water and liquid food rations.

Manalich said officials were looking for ways to provide condensed, high-protein, calorie-rich nutrition to the men, who may have to spend as long as four months trapped underground in the mine until officials.

More:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/chile-seeks-advice-from-nasa-on-feeding-20100825-13qm6.html