RESCUE TEAMS hope to start evacuating the 33 trapped Chilean miners on Tuesday, the country’s health minister said, as a drill boring a rescue shaft drew ever closer to breaking through into the tunnel where the men are located.
Once the escape shaft has been completed, engineers will decide how much of the inside of the shaft to line with metal tubing before hoisting the men to the surface in special capsules, minister Jaime Manalich said.
It is expected to take between 36 and 48 hours to bring all of the men to safety.
After passing the 585m mark yesterday, one of three giant drills is less than 40m from the men, who have been trapped since August 5th.
Using steel piping to line the shaft could cut the risk of a rockfall or another obstruction jamming the rescue capsule, but its insertion could also clog the hole or knock rock loose. And if the pipe breaks, the rescue would be set back significantly.
Laurence Golborne, the country’s mining minister, said the finished shaft would be examined with a video camera before engineers decide whether or not to reinforce it.
Hundreds of rescue workers have prepared a field hospital high on the mountainside that will be used to evaluate, stabilise and temporarily house the 33 miners once they are winched to the surface.
However, the evacuation will begin only after the men have been examined by a team of Chilean naval paramedics and mining rescue experts who will be sent down the shaft.
Then the miners will be strapped, one at a time, into a specially designed capsule for the 15- to 20-minute journey to the surface.
The paramedics will also have the authority to change the list that gives the order of the miners’ ascent.
Commander Renato Navarro, the Chilean navy’s submarine chief, said the list was based on daily examinations of the miners’ physical and psychological health and their “strength of character”.
"The most able miners will leave first . . . Then those with illnesses, or who suffer from one problem or another and finally the last to surface are the strongest physically." – ( GuardianService)