The 33 Chilean miners trapped for almost two months could be freed in the second half of this month as rescuers drill closer to their refuge deep below the Atacama desert, Chile's mining minister said on Friday.The men have been trapped 2,300 feet underground since a cave-in on August 5. "The eventual rescue could come in the second half of October," said Mining Minister Laurence Golborne.Rapid progress by the rescue drills has raised expectations of reaching the miners in October instead of November as first thought.Rescuers will use metal cages designed by Chile's navy to winch the men to the surface one at a time. Doctors said the workers have started exercising in preparation for the ride back to the surface.The trapped men, who include a first-time miner, a former soccer star and a Bolivian immigrant, have also started preparing for the trip home by sending up the gifts that have been sent down to them through small ducts over past weeks."The capsule is tiny, without space for all his stuff. So he's sending it up bit by bit," Juan Sanchez, father of trapped 19-year-old miner Jimmy Sanchez told state television
one of the American miners explained why it was no question that he and his team wanted to help the trapped Chileans, saying, “We have the ability to help them out, and that’s the whole reason we are here. Miners are miners; it doesn’t matter what country they are from.
Having arrived by helicopter, a beaming President Sebastián Piñera confirmed the news and waved one of the messages. “We are well and in a refuge,” it read. “The 33.”
Rescue workers will start winching up the men, trapped some 700 meters (2,200 feet) below ground, "in the second two weeks of October," Golborne said. It's a positive sign, and shows that some things are advancing faster than had been thought."Chilean officials and engineers overseeing the complex operation to extract the men previously said they would not be ready to begin hoisting them to the surface until early November.The workers, who have set a record after being trapped underground since an August 5 cave-in, will be placed one by one in a thin cage specially designed to pull them up via a narrow bore hole being drilled through the earth.
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Xinhua, October 6, 2010
Thirty-three miners trapped deep underground in a copper mine in northern Chile on Tuesday marked two months since the mine they were working in collapsed on Aug. 5.
On the ground, the miners' relatives, who had set up a camp outside the mine on Aug. 22 when it was announced that all the miners trapped were still alive, held a brief ceremony at which they placed 33 flags, one for each miner, as a symbol of remembrance.
At the ceremony outside the mine, some 800 kms north of the capital Santiago, rescuers announced that the miners could be rescued sooner than the planned date of earlier November.
Pedro Buttazzoni, president of the company which owns the drill T-130, part of a rescue effort dubbed "Plan B," said the machine was just 160 meters away from the miners trapped 700 meters underground and that it could reach them as early as this week.
Once "Plan B" reaches where the miners are trapped, the next step would be to determine if the drilled well has to be reinforced with tubes to reduce risks in a rescue, which could delay the rescue for some days.
"We are going to see the condition of the wall with a video camera so as to make the best decision," said Andres Sougarret, chief of the rescue operation.
On Monday, President Sebatian Pinera said he hoped the rescue would be carried out before he departs for a European tour on Oct. 17.
"It is very important to share that moment, not only with the 33 miners, trapped since Aug. 5, but also with their relatives and Chilean people," Pinera said.
"It would be news conveying hope and joy to the whole world." he said.
However, Interior Minister Cristian Barra said Tuesday that neither the dates nor any decisions on the rescue "are related to the president's agenda or a politician's criteria."
"Here the criteria is the well-being of the miners, their health and their technical needs, and each decision related to the case is based on the technicians' and experts' suggestions," Barra said.
Meanwhile, authorities are setting up a temporary hospital outside the mine. Rescued miners would receive treatment in the hospital first before being taken by helicopter to Copiapo, a city some 45 kms away.
The miners themselves have been working underground removing the rubble left while the Plan B machine is drilling down.
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