SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — The 33 trapped miners who have astonished the world with their discipline a half-mile underground will have to aid their own escape — clearing thousands of tons of rock that will fall as the rescue hole is drilled, the engineer in charge of drilling said Sunday.
After drilling three bore holes in recent weeks to create lines of communication and deliver basic food and medicine, the state-owned Codelco mining company will begin boring a rescue hole this afternoon that will be wide enough to pull the men up through 2,300 feet of earth.
The first step will be to drill a “pilot hole” similar in size to the other three. Then much larger machine cutters will grind through that hole, forcing crushed rock to fall into the mine-shaft area near the men.
Failure to keep the bottom clear of debris could quickly plug the hole, delaying a rescue.
“The miners are going to have to take out all that material as it falls,” said Andres Sougarret, Codelco’s head engineer on the operation.
In all, the trapped miners will have to clear between 3,000 and 4,000 tons of rock, work that will require crews of about a half-dozen men working in shifts 24 hours a day.
The men have basic clearing equipment, such as wheelbarrows and industrial-size battery-powered sweepers, Sougarret said. The hole will likely end up several hundred yards from their living area in the mine’s shelter, giving the men room to maneuver and store the rocks, he added.
On Sunday, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne reiterated the government’s estimate of three to four months to rescue the men, rejecting local reports citing engineers who said it could be done in much less time.
