Trapped Chilean miners: Nasa called on for help
Updated on 24 August 2010
Heavy drilling equipment has finally arrived to start work on rescuing the 33 Chilean miners trapped half a mile underground. It could take months, Tom Clarke explains, as the Chilean government asks Nasa for advice on keeping them sane.
A big drill has arrived but will take days to install, as smaller machines work round the clock to make smaller bore holes to provide better air ventilation and extra supply routes for food and water for the miners.
A telephone link to the miners was established today, but it is not clear if the men have been told of just how long it could take to rescue them.
Until now, the miners have survived on just two mouthfuls of tuna and half a glass of milk every 48 hours, and face weeks, if not months before they are rescued.
Dr Barrie Jones of the Mines Rescues Service said the priority for rescue teams will be safeguarding communication lines.
Meanwhile, the Chilean government has approached Nasa for advice on how to keep men healthy and sane in isolation. No miner in history will have ever spent so long trapped underground.
Family, friends and rescue workers have established "Camp Hope" above ground as a base for the rescue effort.
The miners, who have been trapped for 18 days down a mine in Chile, say they have managed to survive by rationing out tiny amounts.
The men, who are stuck in a 500 square foot passage at Copiapo, 450 miles north of Santiago, have been eating just two mouthfuls of tuna and half a glass of milk every 48 hours.
They managed to make contact with rescuers on Sunday by tying a letter to a drill that had managed to bore down as far as the shaft where they are trapped. In a scribbled note to his wife, 63-year-old Mario Gomez wrote: "I will see you soon, and we will be happy ever after."
His wife, Lilanett Ramirez had been waiting at the pithead for three weeks: "I will wait as long as I need to see my husband again", she said.
The miners relatives have now written their own letters to be sent down to their loved ones, to help boost their morale.
Workers have also managed to deliver packs of glucose, hydration gel, medication and oxygen supplies to the miners using special plastic capsules called "doves". They are being sent down an 8cm borehole - which should help keep them alive until rescuers can dig a second, rescue shaft to get them out.
The shift leader at the mine, Luis Urzua, managed to speak by radio link to Chile's mining minister Laurence Golborne - telling him: "we are well. We are waiting to be rescued".
His men are said to be remarkably well and in good spirits, although they are very hungry. They have not been told it could take several months until they are freed and doctors say it is crucial to safeguard their psychological wellbeing.
The men have already lost between 17 and 20 lbs each - but once their stomachs adjust to the glucose sachets, rescuers will be able to send down actual food. They have also been sent questionnaires so doctors can assess their condition, as well as microphones so they can communicate with their families.
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Health minister Jaime Manalich said: "We urgently need to establish what psychological situation they are in. They need to understand what we know up here at the surface: that it will take many weeks for them to reach the light."
It is already one of the longest periods that miners have survived underground - now they face the prospect of months stuck in a chamber the size of a living room, in temperatures of 36 degrees celcius, although they are able to walk along a small tunnel.
They were stuck 700 metres vertically below ground, but have managed to make their way to a mine shaft shelter said to be the size of a small apartment. It is equipped with tanks of water and the men have been using the batteries from a truck to charge the lights on their helmets.
Dr Barrie Jones, Chief Operating Officer with the UK Mines Rescue Service says if the miners are experienced, they will already have an idea of how long it will take to get them out.
He told Channel 4 News: "700 metres is a long way down and I doubt a rescue from that depth has ever been done before. The engineers have done really well to find the men trapped underground. They are using similar technology to that used by BP in the Gulf Spill; there is a great deal of accuracy involved, it is a really skilled art.
"Rescuers will either have to drill a bore hole big enough to get the men out, try and dig down to them or try and clear the area that caved in. There is always a risk that they will destabilise the rock but in copper and gold mines it tends to be ignatius or volcanic rock - something from the granite family- so its usually pretty stable.
"The rescue teams will be mindful not to do anything to jeopardise the communications links with the men. The most important thing is hope. As long as they have hope they should be ok; they have a lot to live for."
Click here to read Dr Barrie Jones' analysis on the rescue
The private company which owns the mine, Compania Minera San Esteban Primera, has been involved in a series of incidents in recent years - in which 16 miners have been killed.
Chile's President Sebastian Pinera has promised to tighten up safety regulations - as well as firing officials at the country's mining regulator. "The miners are alive", he said, "but the job is not done yet."
The miners became trapped after an access tunnel collapsed at the small gold and copper mine near Copiapo on 5 August.
