Chilean rescuers have reinforced an escape shaft to hoist 33 miners to freedom two months after they were trapped deep underground in a cave-in.
Engineers finished drilling a nearly 2,050 foot-long (625m) shaft just wider than a man's shoulders to evacuate the men, and the miners used explosives to make room for a special capsule dubbed ‘Phoenix’ that will hoist them one at a time to the surface.
The rescuers were inserting metal tubes to line the first 100m of the duct to strengthen it, and the government expects to start the evacuation on Wednesday in one of the most complex rescue attempts in mining history.
Spontaneous celebrations broke out across Chile yesterday as news of the drilling breakthrough spread.
Once the men are winched to the surface, they will be given astronaut-style medical checks in a field hospital set up at the mine. They will then be able to spend some time with their families, before being flown by helicopter to nearby Copiapo to be stabilised at another hospital.
After spending so long below ground in a humid, dimly-lit tunnel, their eyesight will need time to adjust.
‘They will come to the surface with their eyes closed and will immediately put on dark glasses which will protect them from the light,’ Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. ‘They will keep them on night and day ... until they get used to natural light.’
The miners are in remarkably good health, although some have developed skin infections.
The government brought in a team of experts from the US NASA space agency to help keep the men mentally and physically fit during the protracted rescue operation. The men had lost an estimated 10kg each in the 17 days before they were found.
