Drilling has begun for a rescue shaft to reach the 33 trapped miners at the San Jose mine in Copiapó, Chile. Photograph: Felix Alonso/AP
The miners trapped underground in Chile will have to move up to 4,000 of tonnes of rock that will be sent crashing into their tunnel by the drill that last night began boring a rescue shaft to save them.
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As work started on a pilot hole to reach the 33 men who have already spent 26 days below the surface, engineers revealed the men would have to help their own escape by clearing debris expected to be created hundreds of metres from their shelter.
They will have to work in round-the-clock shifts to move the crushed rock using wheelbarrows and industrial-sized battery-powered sweepers already in the tunnels, although it could be one or two months before they are called into action. It could be 16 weeks before the miners are lifted to the surface in a capsule sent down the shaft.
Meanwhile food, medical supplies, replacement clothing, sleeping mats, videos and even portable PlayStations have been dropped to the men through other small bore holes drilled in recent weeks. A team from Nasa is on its way to the mine, 500 miles (800km) north of Santiago, to advise on helping the miners cope with tough physiological and psychological conditions. The men have already amazed those seeking to rescue them. They were discovered alive 17 days after the original landslide that caused a tunnel to collapse and trap them 700m (2,300ft) underground, having survived by eking out emergency rations, including tuna, milk and biscuits, designed to last 48 hours. The men also found water by digging into the ground.
The first step in reaching the miners is to complete another pilot hole, just over a foot wide. Larger machine cutters will slowly widen the hole to double its size. But the widening will send rock crashing into an area a few hundred metres from the miners' shelter. That could plug the hole and delay the rescue, meaning that the men themselves must move the debris.
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Source: James Meikle, Jonathan Franklin, The Guardian
