4 MONTHS IN A MINE. (500 square ft.)
- Thread starter Grapes Of Wrath
- Start date
OH HAI GUISE... REMEMBER THEM DOODS IN THE MINE?
WE MAY GIVE THEM FREE TOMORROW.
GOD IS GREAT.
BUMP
___
Trapped Miners' Ordeal Nears End in Chile as Drill Bores Down
Chile’s government is making final preparations to rescue 33 miners trapped half a mile underground as engineers predicted that drills boring into the earth will reach the men by tomorrow.
“We expect to break through by around Saturday and carry out the rescue operation that could take an additional three or eight days,” Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said in televised remarks at the mine site yesterday. “There is no concrete or specific date” for the rescue, he said, adding that with a “little luck” the drill could break through today.
One of three rescue shafts reached a depth of 550 meters (1,800 feet) early yesterday, about 70 meters short of the underground chamber where the men took shelter Aug. 5 when the mine collapsed, according to Geotec Boyles Bros., which is digging the hole. Drills are boring down at a rate of about two meters an hour, Golborne said.
As engineers cut a path to the miners, workers on the surface began rehearsing plans for extracting the miners from underground and transporting them to a nearby hospital. Officials are also debating whether the two-foot wide shaft the men will ascend to reach the surface needs to be lined with a steel casing to ensure the walls won’t collapse.
Officials will decide whether to install the casing after drilling is complete, Golborne said. Workers would need two or three days to prepare cranes and other equipment for the extraction and as long as eight days if they decide to install casing, he said.
Steel Casing
“The decision on whether to install casing will be made with as much information as possible,” he said. “Partial casing or not casing at all are options we’re analyzing.”
Rescuers will most likely decide to install a partial casing before pulling out the men, said Enes Zepeda, a mining engineer and director of the supervisors’ union at state-owned copper producer Codelco. The state company, BHP Billiton Ltd. and other mining companies assisted in what has become the world’s longest-ever mine rescue.
“It makes sense to case the first 100 meters for safety reasons,” Zepeda said yesterday at a press conference in Santiago. The union is recommending that rescuers do the additional work to ensure the miners’ safety, even though the volcanic-rock walls of the shaft appear to be stable, he said.
It will take about 90 minutes to rescue each man, Zepeda said.
“The deeper it gets, the more complicated things become,” Eugenio Eguiguren, international vice president of Geotec, said in a telephone interview this week from Santiago.
The miners were trapped after an access tunnel caved in at Cia. Minera San Esteban Primera SA’s San Jose copper and gold mine in Chile’s northern Atacama region.
Presidential Greeting
Golborne canceled a planned speech in London next week to monitor the mine rescue, said Cristian Leon, a spokesman at the Chilean Embassy in London. President Sebastian Pinera may reschedule his trip to Europe next week to greet the miners as they are rescued, he said in a radio interview Oct. 4.
The miners’ only contact with the outside world has been through small drill holes into which people on the surface pass down food, water, medicine and games such as dominoes. Miners were told Oct. 6 that drilling had advanced; they weren’t informed of the extent of the success, Andre Sougarret, the chief engineer in charge of rescue operations, told reporters.
Workers and officials this week will rehearse parts of the rescue operation, which will entail flying miners by helicopter from the mine to a nearby hospital, Golborne said.
“Speed could be important in this case,” Hernan Rojas, director of the hospital in nearby city Copiapo where miners will be treated, said yesterday in a radio interview.
Health workers at the hospital are setting aside two floors where the miners will be examined and treated following their rescue, Rojas said.
Once officials reach the trapped miners and give the go- ahead to begin rescue operations, a tube 24 inches wide will be lowered into the hole, which measures 26 inches at its narrowest point, La Tercera newspaper reported Oct. 6. At 120 meters, rescuers will have to navigate a sharp turn before the hole drops straight down to the miners, the newspaper reported.
WE MAY GIVE THEM FREE TOMORROW.
GOD IS GREAT.
BUMP
___
Trapped Miners' Ordeal Nears End in Chile as Drill Bores Down
Chile’s government is making final preparations to rescue 33 miners trapped half a mile underground as engineers predicted that drills boring into the earth will reach the men by tomorrow.
“We expect to break through by around Saturday and carry out the rescue operation that could take an additional three or eight days,” Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said in televised remarks at the mine site yesterday. “There is no concrete or specific date” for the rescue, he said, adding that with a “little luck” the drill could break through today.
One of three rescue shafts reached a depth of 550 meters (1,800 feet) early yesterday, about 70 meters short of the underground chamber where the men took shelter Aug. 5 when the mine collapsed, according to Geotec Boyles Bros., which is digging the hole. Drills are boring down at a rate of about two meters an hour, Golborne said.
As engineers cut a path to the miners, workers on the surface began rehearsing plans for extracting the miners from underground and transporting them to a nearby hospital. Officials are also debating whether the two-foot wide shaft the men will ascend to reach the surface needs to be lined with a steel casing to ensure the walls won’t collapse.
Officials will decide whether to install the casing after drilling is complete, Golborne said. Workers would need two or three days to prepare cranes and other equipment for the extraction and as long as eight days if they decide to install casing, he said.
Steel Casing
“The decision on whether to install casing will be made with as much information as possible,” he said. “Partial casing or not casing at all are options we’re analyzing.”
Rescuers will most likely decide to install a partial casing before pulling out the men, said Enes Zepeda, a mining engineer and director of the supervisors’ union at state-owned copper producer Codelco. The state company, BHP Billiton Ltd. and other mining companies assisted in what has become the world’s longest-ever mine rescue.
“It makes sense to case the first 100 meters for safety reasons,” Zepeda said yesterday at a press conference in Santiago. The union is recommending that rescuers do the additional work to ensure the miners’ safety, even though the volcanic-rock walls of the shaft appear to be stable, he said.
It will take about 90 minutes to rescue each man, Zepeda said.
“The deeper it gets, the more complicated things become,” Eugenio Eguiguren, international vice president of Geotec, said in a telephone interview this week from Santiago.
The miners were trapped after an access tunnel caved in at Cia. Minera San Esteban Primera SA’s San Jose copper and gold mine in Chile’s northern Atacama region.
Presidential Greeting
Golborne canceled a planned speech in London next week to monitor the mine rescue, said Cristian Leon, a spokesman at the Chilean Embassy in London. President Sebastian Pinera may reschedule his trip to Europe next week to greet the miners as they are rescued, he said in a radio interview Oct. 4.
The miners’ only contact with the outside world has been through small drill holes into which people on the surface pass down food, water, medicine and games such as dominoes. Miners were told Oct. 6 that drilling had advanced; they weren’t informed of the extent of the success, Andre Sougarret, the chief engineer in charge of rescue operations, told reporters.
Workers and officials this week will rehearse parts of the rescue operation, which will entail flying miners by helicopter from the mine to a nearby hospital, Golborne said.
“Speed could be important in this case,” Hernan Rojas, director of the hospital in nearby city Copiapo where miners will be treated, said yesterday in a radio interview.
Health workers at the hospital are setting aside two floors where the miners will be examined and treated following their rescue, Rojas said.
Once officials reach the trapped miners and give the go- ahead to begin rescue operations, a tube 24 inches wide will be lowered into the hole, which measures 26 inches at its narrowest point, La Tercera newspaper reported Oct. 6. At 120 meters, rescuers will have to navigate a sharp turn before the hole drops straight down to the miners, the newspaper reported.
They bout to start pullin these lucky bastards out in the next few hours 1 by one they sain its gonna take a 2 days till there all out,I'd sure be bossin up to be first up out of dat shit mayne...good luck to them though hope they get rescued safely they deserve it after all the time they been down there