Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Chilean officials hope to rescue miners 'by weekend'

Engineers drilling to reach 33 trapped miners in Chile say the men might be rescued as early as this weekend.  

The head of one of the drilling operations, Pedro Buttazzoni, told the BBC his drill had only 160m (524ft) further to go to reach the men. Earlier, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said rescuers were "very close" to getting them out. 
The miners have now been trapped underground for two months, longer than any previous group.
Mr Buttazzoni, the head of the Chilean mining company Geotec, said his drill had already cut through 464m (1509ft) of rock. He said his team expected to break through to the area where the miners are sheltering in 3-4 days. And he said rescuers were debating whether they would in fact need to line the rescue tunnel with metal casing as planned, a process that would take several days. If it was decided that the lining was not needed, it was "perfectly possible" that the miners could be brought to the surface by the weekend, he said. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11472563

                                                      

No comments:

Post a Comment