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Chilean rescuers reach trapped miners
Chilean rescuers have drilled through to the underground chamber where 33 Chilean miners had been trapped since August. The breakthrough at the San Jose mine came shortly after 8 am Chilean time (2 pm Maltese time).
This meant that efforts to remove the miners through the tunnel should begin "within days".
The Chilean miners had trapped when part of the mine collapsed on 5 August 2010. Their 65-day ordeal was the longest suffered by a group of miners caught underground.
They had been living in a shelter 700 metres underground. However, the Plan B drill - the second of three which had been working simultaneously - had penetrated 624m to a workshop which could be reached by the miners.
Officials warned they still needed to determine whether the miners could be winched up through the exposed rock, or if they would have to wait for the shaft to be encased with steel piping. Huge cranes have already been brought in to lower the metal casing if it is needed.
Chile's Mining Minister Laurence Golborne had warned that it would be "three to eight days" before the rescue mission could begin.
However, Chilean officials have insisted everything needed for the rescue "was now in place".
When the operation was under way, a medic would be sent down the shaft initially, in a special capsule, to assess the miners. Then it was expected to take an hour to winch each man to safety.
The men were expected to be split into three groups. Some who were fit and had the most technical know-how would be chosen to go first, in case something went wrong. Then the weakest were expected to be brought to the surface.
A final group, including some of the strongest miners, would wait till last.
Some of the miners' families had been camped near the mine since the collapse, anxiously awaiting any snippet of news, and grabbing short opportunities to speak to their loved ones by phone.
Yesterday, Chilean rescuers had announced that they had been just ‘hours away’ from completing an escape tunnel for 33 Chilean miners trapped in a mine in San Jose.
Engineers had said earlier they had just 34 metres to drill to reach the miners 700m underground.
But Golborne had warned that the rescuers had to work carefully not to jam the drill.
"We are very close," Golborne said yesterday. "It would be very complicated if after all the work we have done... you lose the hole. We have to be very careful and do it in a controlled way".
