Chilean mine rescue shaft needs reinforcement

Festive atmosphere at Camp Hope as family member and digging crews celebrate amid hope that 33 men could be freed in a matter of days.

A relative of the 33 miners trapped in the copper and gold mine is hugged by a policeman after the T 130 drilling machine completed an escape hole yesterday.

SANTIAGO // The blare of an air horn rang out across Camp Hope yesterday, sparking wild celebrations around the mine in northern Chile where 33 men have been trapped more than 600 metres below ground.

As the miners' families and friends raced up a hill overlooking the site where one of three drills had punched through to the men, officials carefully examined the rescue hole. They decided they will need to reinforce a portion of the shaft with steel pipes.

Once that is accomplished, rescuers can start lifting the men one at a time to the surface in a matter of days in a 21-inch-wide capsule. One official suggested it would start on Tuesday. The mining minister, Laurence Golborne, reminded the nation that the "rescue won't be over until the last person below leaves this mine". However, on the surface at the San Jose mine there was a party atmosphere, where families once had held mournful vigils as they waited to learn if their loved ones even survived when the roof of the mine collapsed on August 5.

The members of the rescue team working on the "Plan B" drill, which they have nicknamed "the hare," jumped up and down on a platform, hugging in celebration while emotional family members hugged and cried. "We feel an enormous happiness, now that I'm going to have my brother," Darwin Contreras, whose brother Pedro is among those trapped, told the Associated Press. "When the siren rang out, it was overwhelming. Now we just have to wait for them to get out; just a little bit longer now."

The men had sustained themselves on rations of tuna, biscuits and sips of milk for more than two weeks before they were discovered alive. Yesterday they told rescuers they had collected the last of the falling rocks as though they were children collecting candy. The entire country had been riveted on the gold and copper mine, 800 km north of Santiago for 65 days. There was joy across the country as word came that the drill had reached the miners at 622 metres below after 33 days of drilling.

"I have dreamt to welcome the 33 miners," the president, Sebastián Piñera, said in a statement broadcast live on national television. "Maybe they are going to be thinner and exhausted but they full of strength of spirit." "I had been praying for them" Maria Villagran, 76, a retired architect, said. However, she said she was sad the men had been in this spot in the first place. The country's mine safety standards have come in for criticism following the accident, one of many at the mine.

Gino Cortes, a miner who lost a leg in 2009 at the same mine, limped through the crowd on crutches to show his support for the men. "This is an experience for other companies in the world," Ms Villagran said. "Because if you find gold underground, first you need to build the channels for security and then go down and work, not the opposite." The miners will now have to use dynamite to expand the shaft for the capsule that will pull them to the surface.

A rescue expert and a medical expert will go down the shaft first, once it has been reinforced, to prepare the men for their journey. The healthiest men will be hauled up first. All will wear sunglasses to protect their eyes. They will be followed by the older and weaker miners. The group's leaders will go last. Celebrations usually reserved for famous football victories are expected across the country once all the men are safely at the surface.

"I think that maybe people are going to come out on the streets, take their flags and things," said Oscar Alguiee, 27, a waiter at a restaurant in Santiago. "If I am not working, I will be going to celebrate."