Avalos’s liberation marked the beginning of the end of the longest-ever mining rescue operation. Other miners are still being pulled from the mine, and it is expected to take 48 hours for all to reach the surface.
Their story, an extraordinary tale of human resilience has captured the world’s attention.
At times, hope for their survival was thin, the miners were not discovered until 17 days after the entrance to the mine they working in was blocked by a landslide.
The Miners
One of the miners joined the mining team just a week prior to the accident, while others had labored in the gold and copper mine most of their working lives.
The oldest miner Mario Gomez, age 63, had been thinking of retiring last year; Raul Bustos, age 40, began working in the mine after he lost his job due to the earthquake in Chile earlier this year. Ariel Ticona, 29, became a father while trapped in the mine, after his wife gave birth to a daughter last month.
Luis Urzua, 54, the shift foreman will be the last one of the miners to leave the mine.
Over the past weeks miners have had sporadic contact with their families through video messages and notes. On Sunday one of the miners, Hector Ticona, sent a worried letter to his father, later read on Chilean television, “I want you all to be ok. Bad news, I hope you don’t get alarmed, since last night the mountain has been active and is still creaking even now, we’ve heard landslides, they were very loud, and we don’t know if it is from above or under. See you, I hope it is not the ramp,” Ticona wrote.
Rescue Operation
The meticulously planned rescue procedure uses a custom-made wire cage lowered through the 28-inch-diameter rescue shaft.
Wearing $400 dollar special protective sunglasses to protect their eyes from UV rays, the miners will be monitored by video and medical equipment that tracks their heart beat, temperature and respiration. The miners will be pulled up one by one in a journey that takes between 10 and 15 minutes. Sirens and revolving lights will announce the arrival of each miner.
The miners will be quickly taken to a nearby field hospital for an initial medical check, where they will also be reunited with some of their family members. Afterward they will be flown by helicopter to a hospital in nearby city of Copiapo, where a entire hospital floor has been reserved for them.
Laurence Golborne, the country’s mining minister told reporters at that San José mine on Tuesday, that extensive tests with the cage were done ahead of the actual rescue. The cage was first sent down filled with sand bags and two special navy paramedics and two mining experts have been sent down to assist the miners as they exit through the shaft.
“There is no need to try to start guessing what could go wrong. We have done that job,” Golborne said, according to AP.
The miners will be pulled up at an average speed of 3.2 feet per second, but if a miner has a panic attack, one of the worst fears rescue workers have, the speed can be increased to 9.6 feet per second.
Camp Hope
The determination of a few family members of the trapped miners to stay on-site and wait for the rescue of their loved ones, has increasingly grown with more and more people arriving to stay in makeshift lodgings near the mine site.
Next to the camp of the families is a camp of media representatives from around the world who have shown up over the last two months, populating the otherwise desolate desert location with an array satellite dishes.
An estimated 1,000 media workers are currently present at the mine site, and authorities plan to closely monitor the miners’ privacy. The miners have already received media training in expectation of tremendous media attention after their rescue.
President at site
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera arrived Tuesday evening at the mine site.
“We made a promise to never surrender, and we kept it,” Pinera said, according to the Associated Press.
While the government’s handling of the rescue operation is likely to boost public support, the incident has also given rise to concerns over the country’s mining safety and regulation.
An average of 34 people die every year in mining accidents in Chile, according to The Telegraph. Over the past six years three people died at mines run by San Esteban, the company that owns the San Jose mine.
Families of the 33 miners have said they will sue the company for $12 million, and are considering another case against the government whose regulators are supposed to monitor operations at the site.
Additional reporting by Anila Weber in Chile
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