The 33 men trapped in a Chilean mine can begin counting down to their rescue, after that country's mining minister said the escape shaft should be ready by Wednesday.
In a press conference late Saturday, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said rescuers will spend the next few days reinforcing approximately 96 metres of the escape shaft that reached the miners earlier in the day.
The hole "is in very good condition, and doesn't need to be cased completely," Golborne said, explaining that 16 pipes, each six metres long, would be welded together and inserted into the top of the hole. The work would begin immediately, he said.
The "Plan B" drill reached the miners 622 metres below the surface at 8:05 a.m. on Saturday, beating two other drills in a 33-day race to carve a hole wide enough for the trapped miners to be hoisted, one-by-one, in a specially-built escape capsule.
Cheers erupted at the makeshift camp where families have been keeping vigil, when a siren blast indicated the drill had finally reached the cavern where the miners have been trapped since Aug. 5.
Thrilled by the progress, drill operator Jeff Hart of Denver, Colorado acknowledged there is more perilous work ahead.
"There is nothing more important than saving, possibly saving 33 lives. There's no more important job than that," Hart told The Associated Press. "We've done our part, now it's up to them to get the rest of the way out."
There lay the dilemma facing rescuers: is it better to attempt pulling the miners up through the unreinforced shaft, or to try and reinforce the escape route with tons of heavy steel pipe?
Such pipes could protect the miners from falling stones as they're being pulled through the shaft, but would do nothing to prevent the unstable mine from suffering another major collapse.
"You would have to put though a 600-metre hole a lot of pipes that weigh more than 150 tons," Golborne warned reporters. "And this structure can be set in a position that also could block the movement of the Phoenix (escape capsule). It's not an decision easy to make."
But, after officials conducted a close video examination of the shaft, thjey determined most of it appears to be smooth and stable enough for the escape capsule to pass unobstructed.
The operation will begin with a medic and a mining expert descending into the mine. Then they will help each miner, starting with the most skilled miners, into the capsule for the estimated one-hour ascent to the surface. They will go first, in the event they encounter any problems on the way up, they may be best suited to solving them. Then, those with the weakest health will be extracted next, followed by the remaining miners. Once underway, the rescue operation is expected to stretch over two days.
The miners will initially be examined at a field hospital, where they will be able to briefly meet with up to three relatives before being flown by helicopter to the regional hospital in Copiapo. After at least 48 hours of medical observation, during which they will undergo rigorous physical and mental health tests, the miners will finally be allowed to go home.
With files from CTV's National Affairs Correspondent Lisa LaFlamme and The Associated Press
