Chile mine owners beg forgiveness for miners’ plight

[Judi Lynn]

Chile mine owners beg forgiveness for miners’ plight

31 August 2010 COPIAPO, Chile — The owners of a Chilean mine which collapsed early this month, trapping 33 men underground, asked forgiveness Tuesday for the accident, as a giant drill slowly bored through the earth to rescue the miners.

“The pain caused by this unwanted and unforeseen situation means we must ask forgiveness for the anguish being felt at this time,” Alejandro Bohn, co-chief of the mining group San Esteban, told a parliamentary mining committee looking into the drama.

“This is a terrible situation, and we hope that it will soon come to a happy end,” he added in televised remarks.
Rescuers say it will take three to four months for the 30-ton hydraulic drill to chew through the 700 meters (2,300 feet) of rock entombing the miners, who were trapped by a cave-in 26 days ago on August 5.

The machine, an Australian-made Strata 950, was excavating at a rate of 15 meters (50 feet) a day. It will first bore a 33-centimeter (13-inch) pilot hole, then make that twice as wide so the men can be pulled up through it, one by one.

More:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August1777.xml§ion=international&col=

[Judi Lynn]

1. NASA May Enlist Celebrities to Divert Trapped Chilean Miners During Rescue

NASA May Enlist Celebrities to Divert Trapped Chilean Miners During Rescue
By Randy Woods and Matt Craze - Aug 31, 2010 2:37 PM CT

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration may help organize astronauts and celebrities to entertain 33 miners trapped in a mine in Chile during a rescue that may take as much as four months.

The miners, who have been trapped in the San Jose underground mine in the Atacama Desert for a record 26 days, have already received messages of support from Chilean soccer star Ivan Zamorano and the national coach Marcelo Bielsa and have spoken on the phone with President Sebastian Pinera.

“As we progress through in the coming weeks and months there might be an opportunity to have others make contact with the miners,” James Duncan, deputy chief medical officer at the Johnson Space Center, told reporters in Santiago today. They may include famous Chileans or NASA astronauts, he said.

Rescue teams began drilling last night a hole big enough to lift the miners out of tunnels where temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), Pinera said today in televised remarks. The rescue effort may be shortened to two months from an original estimate of four, Walter Herrera, whose company is installing the drilling machine to bore a second tunnel, said Aug. 28.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-31/nasa-may-enlist-celebrities-to-divert-trapped-chilean-miners-during-rescue.html

[bherrera]

5. I am surprised it takes so long to dig 700 meters.

maybe it is because the drilling machine takes time to install. But one would expect that drilling a shaft into rock, only 700 meters, would be done in weeks, and not months.

[Flatulo]

2. If this had happened in Japan, the upper management would resign in disgrace.

[Judi Lynn]

3. If this happened in US's ally Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov just might have them boiled

once they get to the surface.

http://www.world-crisis.com.nyud.net:8090/images/uploads/karimov_terror_1.jpg

[Flatulo]

4. Oh, he's a fucker, alright. I'd heard that was one of his little pecadillos.