Chile builds ‘cells’ to help trapped 33 miners cope
By ANIMonday, October 4, 2010
LONDON - Amid hopes of bringing 33 trapped miners to the surface before the end of the month, Chilean officials have begun building a field hospital at the San Jose mine.
The miners are trapped 2257 feet underground since August 6.
Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said rescuers hoped to winch up the trapped miners in the last two weeks of October, officially bringing forward the previous rescue date from November.
The first tests on a rescue capsule that will be used were conducted over the weekend as engineers reported that a drill had completed 1,404ft of the shaft through which they will be brought to the surface, The Telegraph reports.
It has been reported that the operation is over halfway to completing its second phase of widening a 2,067ft duct to the 28in diameter needed.
The shaft will then be lined in metal before the narrow capsule can be sent down to collect the first man.
The first of 33 metal containers that will house each miner in the hours after their rescue have arrived at Camp Hope in the Atacama Desert.
There are reports that each man will be permitted two family members to join them in their cell, which will protect them from the sun after so long underground, while medical checks are performed. (ANI)
