Beaconsfield, Australia – Two Australian gold miners trapped in a tiny steel cage nearly a half mile underground chatted, joked and even placed a fast-food order Saturday as rescuers bored within several feet of them.
Comforted by the sound of the giant drilling machine about 16 feet away, Brant Webb, 37 and Todd Russell, 34, spoke to their emergency cews through a narrow pipe.
“Todd wants steak, egg and chips and he wants to go to Maccas” after he’s brought to the surface, paramedic Peter James told reporters, referring to the McDonald’s restaurant. “He asked for us to go through a drive-through with the lights and sirens going.” Rescuers had completed about 41 feet of the 52-foot escape tunnel, but the miners probably won’t be rescued before Sunday, said Tasmania state Minerals Council chief executive Terry Long.
He said it was “absolutely critically important” that the “delicate” rescue operation be carried out correctly. The miners don’t appear to mind.
“They just said, ‘Do it safely,”‘ said Matthew Gill, manager of the century-old Beaconsfield Gold Mine in Tasmania state. “They weren’t concerned at the time (taken) at all.” Drilling teams have been working around the clock, cutting through solid rock at a rate of 18 inches an hour. They soon plan to use handtools to carefully chip away the final few feet of rock when they are directly below the men.
Since they were trapped by an April 25 earthquake, Webb and Russell have turned into the stars of an unlikely reality television experience. News anchors camped in the mine’s parking lot have kept Australians posted on what Webb and Russell are eating, how they are sleeping, even what music they’re listening to – country western – on the iPods rescuers pushed through a narrow tube that connects them to the outside world.
On Thursday night, the men had their first home-cooked meal since their ordeal began.
“Last night, they had soup made by their families,” Gill added. “I believe Todd had chicken and vegetable, and Brant had pumpkin.” Seventeen men were working the night shift on April 25 when a 2.1 magnitude earthquake struck the mine. Fourteen men made it safely to the surface, but Webb, Russell and their colleague Larry Knight, 44, did not.
The three men were reinforcing the walls and roof of a tunnel when the quake hit, burying them.
Knight’s body was found two days later as rescuers cleared away the rubble. Webb and Russell, who were working inside a steel safety cage at the end of a hydraulic arm, were trapped under tons of rock.
For five days, they survived on a single cereal bar and by licking water seeping through the rocks around them, huddled inside the cramped 4-by-4-foot cage in 86 degree heat.
Rescuers, who had blasted through 80 feet of rock from a neighboring tunnel, discovered they were alive Sunday when a thermal imaging camera picked up traces of their body heat.
By Monday, the team had forced a pipe through crevices in the rock through which they pushed supplies including water, vitamins and fresh clothing.
Comforts like iPods, an inflatable mattress, egg and chicken sandwiches and even flavored ice followed.
The good humor of the two men, both married with three children, has amazed rescuers. One of the men asked for a newspaper to be pushed through the pipe so he could start scanning the classified ads for another job, Gill said. Another wanted to be out by Saturday so he could play for his local soccer team.
With attention focused on the rescue, the issue of mine safety has not yet come to the fore.
Compared with other countries, Australia has a strong mine safety record. After the deaths of 16 West Virginia coal miners earlier this year, U.S. labor leaders and experts held up Australia as a possible role model.
According to the Minerals Council of Australia, a trade association that represents 85 percent of Australian mining companies, fatalities are on a downward trend. Nineteen miners were killed in 1999-2000, and 10 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005. Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, and the country is dotted with mines extracting everything from uranium to diamonds.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 152 fatalities in mining and oil and natural gas extraction in 2004. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration reported 25 deaths in coal mine accidents that year.
