Workers reinforce the exit shaft through which the 33 trapped miners will be lifted out, with steel piping, at the San Jose mine near the city of Copiapo, 800 km north of Santiago on October 10, 2010.
(JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty)
The 33 Chilean gold miners who have been trapped underground since August 5 may be rescued as soon as Wednesday, according to the country's mining minister, Laurence Golborne.
Rescue workers began stabilizing the top of the rescue shaft over the weekend by inserting lengths of steel pipe. Once the rescue shaft has been reinforced, rescue workers will introduce the one-person rescue capsule, called "Phoenix," and bring the miners to the surface one-by-one.
Eva Salinas, the editor of The Santiago Times, joins us from the San Jose mine in Chile to provide the latest news on the rescue efforts. Also, Col. Tom Kolditz, the chair of the behavioral sciences program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, discusses the psychological factors that might be affecting the miners during the next critical few days.
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Comments [1]
Now Gold miners? Another mine disaster, like the copper mine? Mine safety rules should include safe rooms equipped with 2 to 4 weeks of supplies, so that miners have a chance of surviving until the post disaster surface drills can determine if there are survivors. These disasters will affect survivors for the rest of their lives. Thank someone who established a safe room that there was anything at all for them to eat while they waited.
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