Miners trapped in a Chilean mine

[dazbt]

I'm a bit surprised that there are not any comments here, I hope beyond hope that these guys survive this.

[erichall]

Only thinking this am as I read the papers, that a story which was headline news a short while ago, and is an ongoing saga with hopefully a happy ending, has now been forgotten.
Anyone got the latest update? or a possible ongoing link?
22 sept and still praying.

[John]

This is the best I can find Eric.


Chileans optimistic for early October miner rescue
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By MICHAEL WARREN | Posted: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 4:20 pm | (3) Comments



Chilean rescuers are growing increasingly optimistic about pulling the 33 trapped miners out far sooner than originally estimated, and with drilling quickly advancing on three narrow escape chutes, they raced Tuesday to decide on a design for the capsule that will lift the men to safety.

President Sebastian Pinera has staked his presidency on being able to show the world that his government has safely rescued the miners ahead of schedule. He promised the men after they were found to be alive Aug. 22 that they would be home by Christmas _ a timeframe mining experts called far too conservative _ and then put hundreds of rescuers to work on three simultaneous drilling operations to reach them more quickly.

The engineer in charge of the rescue effort, Andre Sougarret, said Tuesday that "it's still premature to talk about shorter timeframes. We're sticking with the first days of November as the final date of the rescue."

But the rescue team's own numbers suggest faster progress. The biggest drill, labeled "Plan C," is capable of much faster speed, and the deeper it gets, the faster engineers plan to drill.

Barring unforeseen complications, it could break through to the miners at a point nearly 2,000 feet (597 meters) underground in the second week of October. Sougarret has said it would then take 8 days to insert an iron sleeve in the 28-inch-wide (71-centimeter-wide) chute to prevent rock falls while miners are being pulled out.

There's also the matter of an Oct. 15-22 European trip scheduled by Pinera, who promised the miners in a video chat Sunday that he would be there to hug them as they emerged.

While his ministers have struggled to manage expectations, Pinera could hardly contain himself when asked by reporters at the mine to commit to a date, saying with his usual broad smile that "it will be sooner than what you expect."

In another indication of the rescue effort's progress, Sougarret said the rescue capsule _ named Phoenix for the mythical bird that burns to ashes, only to rise again and live for hundreds of years _ has to be ready within 10 to 12 days after they decide on a final design this week.

With that in mind, engineers were viewing prototypes of the capsules Tuesday at ASMAR, the Chilean navy's shipbuilding operation in Talcahuano, where three of the capsules will be built to provide backups in case anything goes wrong.

The specifications are elaborate: The capsules must come equipped with tanks to provide three hours of oxygen, wheels mounted on shock absorbers to maintain contact with the pipe's walls, an internal harness to prevent injury to the miners, and a wireless communication system so the men can remain in touch with people inside and outside the mine during the 15- to 20-minute journey to the surface.

It also must fit through a chute just 23 inches (58.4 centimeters) in diameter, while also providing just enough room to squeeze inside for the largest man trapped below, a miner whose shoulders measure 19 inches (48 centimeters) across.

"That's the critical dimension for the cage's design," Sougarret said in a briefing Tuesday at the San Jose mine.

ASMAR plans a cylinder with walls of steel 0.16 inch (4 millimeters) thick, with an escape hatch and interior harness system designed to enable the occupant to lower himself back down into the mine should the capsule get stuck.

"Everything is advancing OK, the technical team ... is already at ASMAR evaluating the rescue capsule design. It has been baptized Phoenix. This week we will decide" its final characteristics, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said by Twitter on Tuesday.

The capsule designers have received some guidance from U.S. engineers involved in Pennsylvania's 2002 Quecreek coal mine disaster, said Tom Foy, one of nine men who were pulled to safety in an operation that has many similarities to the effort in Chile.

Foy, now 61, was stuck for three days about 270 feet underground, in a coal seam just four feet high, with groundwater rising and oxygen disappearing. By the time rescuers broke through with an air pipe and heard them bang nine times to signal their survival, Foy figures they had just an hour of air left.

The Quecreek rescuers didn't bother installing a metal sleeve inside their escape chute. Groundwater gushed through walls of the hole and drenched the rescue cage as they were pulled up.

"Who cares about the water _ just get us the heck out of there! It was pouring like buckets, but who cares?" Foy recalled. "They could have pulled me up on a rope for all I cared."

___

Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera at the San Jose mine and Eva Vergara and Federico Quilodran in Santiago contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects target depth of Plan C drill to nearly 2,000 feet (597 meters).)

Posted in National-and-international, News, World on Tuesday, September 21, 2010 4:20 pm Updated: 1:31 am. | Tags

[erichall]

Tanks for the update, John.

[John]

Looks like they could be hoisted to the surface next week!!

[philipford734]

5 men rescued now (9.30am), the rescue seems to be going ok
The rescue men that have gone underground to help the men out are realy special. Good luck to all involved.

[John]

That's good news, a long time to be trapped underground.
I wonder of the Chilean government will now look at some new regulations like all mines must have a second means of egress??

[erichall]

GREAT NEWS ALL MINERS RESCUED AND ALL RESCUERS OUT AS WELL - noticed this at 0600hrs 14/10. after having a few hours to rest my eyes from the TV screen, to which they have been glued since yesterday.

I was most impressed by the arrangements made by the Chilean govt. who had provided sites for cameras etc. and large screens to display current news to visiting media, thus keeping them clear of the immediate environs of the site, and thus preventing some IDIOT sticking a microphone down the throat of a newly rescued miner and asking the stupid question 'How do you feel to be rescued?' I know what the media are like if anything out of the way happens. I've experienced it. They don't like it when you simply tell them to 'go forth and multiply'
Full credit to everyone involved in the rescue and especially to the very brave man who descended in the capsule, and remained underground until the last man had gone. That took GUTS.

Everything was made to look so simple, but it wasn't until I read in the paper today, that it wasn't simply a matter of dropping a capsule down and pulling it back up. Few things in mining ever are! The hole itself apparently went down at an angle then 'dog-legged. The drilling of the hole itself was a far from easy task. I remember the sinking of, I believe, the Bretby shaft. That hit water- logged ground and the outside areas of the shaft had to be frozen, requiring a number of much smaller holes being drilled for the freezing process. We were shown a film of the holes after they had been surveyed, and they cork-screwed all over the place. It is far from simple drilling a vertical hole, and this was some feat.

We can only hope that some GENUINE footage of the whole process will be shown at some time, and I don't mean a Hollywood version. Still I think it's too late for John Wayne to have drilled the hole as well as going down in the capsule!!!

With regard to the targets, I appreciated that at no time did the rescuers give false hope. They had announced their schedule, which, in the light of results, appeared to be very cautious. At no time did they raised people's hopes to have to dash them again. What a pleasure, therefore, for things going well and 'ahead of schedule' I just hope that the media will now stop talking of 'heroes'. The entombed miners were not heroes- just very brave men making the best of a very tricky situation.

[erichall]

John,
With regard to your post regarding the Chilean government and the safety regulations, I am sure that they will already be looking at this point because the eyes of the world are now on them.
With regards to second means of egress, I think this is a point to look at, but I do not think for one moment that it would have made the slightest difference in this case. Don't forget that the men were inbye, and being able to even reach a second egress would, I think, have been impossible. I was very impressed, however, with the provision of Aid Stations underground, although I understand that this was an inbye service depot. The other thing that impressed was the provision of communications between u/g and surface. I realise this was done through a borehole initially, but communications have improved tremendously since my time, when it was often said that 'We can send a man to the moon and talk to him. I can't even contact the b****y surface!!!' How many times has that been said?

[John]

Great work from all involved. Yep, they were probably in a stope, and the fall was outbye of them.
When I first started at Boulby, we had emergency rations and drinking water in locked insulated chests underground.
The reason at that time was we only had at our disposal one main shaft, the number two shaft. It doubled up as men and materials, minerals and main downcast via four vent tubes and upcast shaft.
No 1 shaft was being fitted out with steelwork for the skip guides and could be at times out of commission for using for riding in. It had three winders installed at that time too!! Shaft sinking, the old platform winder and a spare.
We only rode that shaft at times when No2 was out of action, and then 25 man limits were imposed underground.

Mid year after I started there the No1 winder was commissioned and put into service for both rock hoisting and manriding via the nine man section of the skips, and a modified larger manriding deck in the top of the skips.

Great news though that all men are now "home" safe and sound.

[dazbt]

They did have access to an alternative egress and did, within a short time after the initial fall make their way to it only to find that an 'escape ladder' was incomplete.

[erichall]

Fully realise that a second means of egress is important. Fact is that I'm a little wary, since the time I spent as undermanager in the Three Quarter seam at Markham colliery. This was in the No.4 Pit section of the complex, and our sme was the No.3 Shaft, which was part of the No.2 Pit complex. I was due to go on holiday on the Friday, and on my last shift before the holiday, Thurs., my partner in the Piper seam, which was part of the No.4 pit, asked me if I'd been travelled our sme and on being told no suggested that we both went out that way. This involved a climb up a 1in4 coal drift into No.2 pit and a ride up the 'Shonky' shaft as it was called. This we duly did. On Friday, I started my holidays and picked up my family and travelled south from Jct30 on the M1 travelling to Goodrington sands, waving to Markham as I went past.
'Bye Bye, Markham. I don't want to see or hear of you for another fortnight' were my exact words. Imagine my horror when, on the Monday, whilst lazing on the beach in scorching sun, I was sent to buy the local early evening news. On arriving back at our beach party, I opened the paper and to my horror, read that it was the Markham No.3 Shaft disaster. What a way to begin a 'holiday'!