Engineers started sending hydration gel and medication through a narrow bore hole on Monday to keep the miners alive during the long rescue effort and and have set up an intercom. The miners have not yet been told how much longer they may be underground to avoid hurting morale.
Now engineers must build a concrete platform and erect the drill, which will bore a shaft 2,300 feet straight down around 2 feet in diameter, and plan to use a pulley to lower a cage to evacuate them one at a time.
Regional superintendent Ximena Matas said it would take a couple of days to assemble the drill. Rescue workers say it will take three to four months to dig the escape shaft.
Relatives of those trapped, who have been living in plastic tents at the mine head in a makeshift settlement dubbed Camp Hope, are elated but face a long wait.
Maria Segovia, a 48-year-old street vendor whose brother Dario is trapped in the mine, said she and her siblings would take turns staying at the mine during the rescue.
“It will be difficult to leave this behind, because though it’s hard to believe, it has become our home,” she said, overlooking a tiny tent where she has slept since the cave-in on Aug. 5.
Mining Minister Laurence Golborne made the first intercom contact with the miners on Monday.
“We are well. We’re waiting to be rescued,” Luis Urzua, shift leader at the mine, told Golborne from below as the trapped miners applauded, cheered and sang Chile’s national anthem.
The accident in the small gold and copper mine has turned a spotlight on mine safety in Chile, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, although accidents are rare at major mines.
The miners are 4.5 miles inside the winding mine. They took shelter in a sparse 540-square-foot refuge, an area the size of a small apartment, which contains two long wooden benches. They have now moved out into a tunnel because of ventilation problems.
Tanks of water and ventilation helped the miners to survive. The men rationed out the provisions they had, eating two mouthfuls of tuna and half a glass of milk every 48 hours. Health officials estimate they may have lost about 17.5 to 20 pounds each.
