SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — Drillers neared the lower reaches of a gold and copper mine where 33 men have been trapped for more than two months, preparing Friday for a breakthrough that would unleash a national outpouring of joy.
Engineers were carving through the last 128 feet of rock, taking care to keep the T130 drill from jamming or punching through with too much force, said Mining Minister Laurence Golborne.
“We are very close,” Golborne said. “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.”
The “Plan B” drill was poised to win a three-way race to reach the miners with a hole wide enough to accommodate their escape capsule. Two other drills, “Plan A” and “Plan C,” had to slow down after repeatedly veering off course.
The breakthrough — to be heralded with a loud siren — was sure to be an emotional milestone in the tent city known as “Camp Hope.” Expectations soared as word came that Chile’s first lady, Cecilia Morel, would meet with the families.
“There’s just a little bit left to go, a very little bit,” said Cristina Nunez, eager to see her husband, Claudio Yanez.
If the shaft’s rock walls are found to be strong, the miners could be pulled out beginning Tuesday. If not, rescuers will line the shaft at least partially with steel pipe, delaying the rescue for three to eight more days.
The T130 drill aimed at a workshop 2,047 feet below ground.
That’s not as deep as where the miners happened to be gathered together, eating their midday meal, when 700,000 tons of rock collapsed Aug. 5. The mine runs like a corkscrew for more than 4 miles below a rocky hill in Chile’s vast northern Atacama desert, and at any other time, some would probably have been crushed in the middle section.
Once the drilling is complete, a video camera will be lowered through the shaft, and the decision on whether to line the shaft will be made today, Golborne said.
Numbers
64 Days the miners have been trapped underground
2,047 feet How far the drills must bore down to reach the miners
