Chile drilling operation reaches trapped miners

A drilling operation yesterday reached 33 miners trapped in a Chile mine since early August, but the 630-metre deep hole now must be widened to bring the men out safely, a government official said.

The work still required to extract the miners was to take at least another six weeks, according to officials’ estimates.

The government official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said a T-130 drilling machine had broken through to a work area in the tunnel where the miners were holed up, opening a 30-centimetre hole in the roof.

That hole will now have to be widened to 70 centimeters, with the miners themselves working to clear the tons of rubble from the excavation.

The T-130 drill was the second machine brought in to bore a hole to the miners. The first drill, a slower Strata 950 hydraulic bore, has so far descended only 320 metres through the ground.

Another, much faster drill usually used on oil platforms, called a RIG-422, was being set up and expected to begin its work within days.

Whichever escape tunnel ends up being finished first, it will have to accommodate a special bullet-shaped capsule which will haul each of the miners to the surface.

The group – comprising 32 Chileans and one Bolivian – was trapped in the mine on August 5 after a tunnel collapse.

The miners have survived underground longer than anyone on record.

They are being supplied with food, water, medicine and entertainment through three supply holes. The holes were also carrying communication lines to the surface, where family members were camped.

Yesterday’s breakthrough came just ahead of Chile’s weekend bicentennial independence celebrations which were certain to focus on the miners and their extraordinary ordeal.

Chilean Energy Minister Laurence Golborne, who has been overseeing the rescue operation, on Thursday said he expected the T-130 drill to reach the miners by the weekend.

He explained that the second phase of the machine’s operation, after breaking through to the miners, was to have its drill bit replaced to grind a wider hole using the initial shaft as a guide.

That will “take several additional weeks”, he said.

Rescue coordinator Rene Aguilar said Wednesday that the best-case scenario was “reaching them by the first days of November.”

On Chile’s bicentennial independence celebrations today, both the miners and their families were to raise the Chilean flag and sing the national anthem, according to Atacama region Governor Ximena Matas.

President Sebastian Pinera will also visit the mine to salute the men trapped underground and the rescue crews trying to save them, minister Golborne said.