Rescuers in Chile hit setback, halting drilling
Maintenance, broken bit delaying work
SANTIAGO, Chile – When the drilling stops, the 33 miners who have been trapped underground for weeks in northern Chile notice. And they are not pleased about the progress above.
On Monday only one of three drilling efforts was operational – the so-called Plan A drill, reaching down to 750 feet. But it too must stop at 820 feet, for maintenance work. Plan B, a higher-velocity drill that will carve out a narrower escape tunnel, has been silenced since last week, when it struck an iron support beam for the mine and its drill bit shattered into small pieces. A third drill, Plan C, is still days away from starting its work.
Rescuers have already tried three times to use magnets to remove pieces of the shattered second drill and iron beam from the hole. If a fourth effort also fails, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said Monday, then the second drill will have to be moved and start digging an entirely new hole.
The setback has caused anxiety among the men trapped by a mine collapse, who had been cheered by the sound of the constant hammering of the second drill as it bored through solid rock.
In talks with their families over a fiber-optic line rescuers dropped through one of the narrow bore-holes, they demanded explanations from authorities, who have struggled to strike a balance between can-do optimism and the reality that the miners may remain stuck a half-mile below ground for months.
About 25 families are still holding vigil in a tent camp outside the mine in the Atacama desert, and many more are anxiously following every development in the rescue effort.
Their numbers will soon grow by one – and her name will be Esperanza, Spanish for Hope. The first child of miner Ariel Tiscona and his wife Elizabeth Segovia is expected to be born by cesarean section today.