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New tack as fresh mine cave-in blocks Chile rescue
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New tack as fresh mine cave-in blocks Chile rescue
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World »
By Alonso Soto
COPIAPO |
Sun Aug 8, 2010 1:01pm EDT
COPIAPO Chile (Reuters) - Rescuers readied on Sunday to drill small holes deep inside a mine in northern Chile to try to locate 33 miners trapped for three days by cave-ins and keep them alive after a bid to reach them failed.
The rescue effort faced a major setback on Saturday when a fresh collapse blocked the ventilation shaft rescue workers were descending. No contact has yet been made with the miners, trapped since Thursday 4.5 miles inside the winding mine, and around 900 feet vertically underground.
Authorities hope they managed to reach an underground shelter with oxygen and are rationing food and water.
The hope is now to find them and pass them fresh supplies of water and food and communication lines down a narrow drill hole until experts find a way to extract them from the small gold and copper mine.
Workers used mechanical diggers to clear a path for a drilling rig to enter the mine to start the perforations, and were also trying to clear the cave-ins along the main mine ramp underground and the ventilation shaft.
"I personally promised the families of the trapped miners the rescue operations will continue with all the strength in the world," President Sebastian Pinera said on Sunday at his palace in Santiago, after cutting short a visit to Colombia to fly home to meet families at the mine late on Saturday.
"Unfortunately it is not easy," he added. "I also pledged to thoroughly investigate, establish where responsibility lies, and punish accordingly."
Rescuers face a race against time to reach the miners, who, if they reached the shelter, are huddled in a space the size of a small apartment.
The San Jose mine, which belongs to local private company Compania Minera San Esteban Primera, was shut down by the accident. It is one of three adjacent sites producing a combined 1,200 metric tons of refined copper annually.
The closure is not expected to hurt copper output in Chile, the world's No.1 copper producer. Major mining accidents are uncommon in the country, because authorities keep strict controls over operations.
Anguished relatives, who spent a second night at the mouth of the mine around a bonfire, wailed when they heard news of the fresh collapse on Saturday.
They later calmed down when they were told the mine had not collapsed entirely and rescue efforts would continue, though several then tried to storm the mine entrance and scuffled briefly with police, calling company officials "murderers".
"We have to wait because the rescue will go on," said local trader Crisologo Rojas, 51, whose nephew and friends are trapped in the mine, 450 miles north of the capital, Santiago. "I don't know what they're going to find down there."
Local union official Felix Medina said conditions at many smaller mines in the area are precarious. He said the mine, which employs 150 people, has a recent history of accidents, with 13 fatalities on site and three deaths on the winding road to Copiapo.
The mine lacks escape routes and was closed in 2005 by workers because of bad conditions, he added. It was reopened two years ago.
(Writing by Simon Gardner, Editing by Sandra Maler)
World
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