Chilean miners told they may be trapped until Christmas
Workers complete second borehole to send clothes, medicine and games to men who face long wait to be rescued
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Candles are lit at the site of the Chilean mine where 33 men may be trapped underground for months. Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP
The 33 Chilean miners who have been trapped underground for three weeks have been told that they may not be rescued until the end of the year.

The health minister, Jaime Mañalich, said the men – who had not previously been told how long the operation could take – had accepted the news calmly during talks with the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera.

"During a conversation with his excellency the president of the republic, we were pretty much able to tell them and they've accepted that they're not going to be rescued before Fiestas Patrias [Chile's independence day celebrations on 18 September]," said Mañalich last night.

"[But] we hope to be with them – and their families hope to be with them – before Christmas."

The minister added: "I think that we've been able to talk with them very frankly and they've accepted it and they're calm and they want to work well with us."

Mañalich said the men were still in good shape and revealed that rescue workers had managed to finish a second narrow borehole which would be dedicated to channelling drinking water to the miners and keeping communications flowing.

Rescuers are sending clothes, medicine and games down the 700-metre borehole, which has the diameter of a grapefruit, to help keep the men physically and mentally fit.

The government has asked Nasa and Chile's submarine fleet for tips on survival in extreme, confined conditions, and are intending to send them rations similar to those used on space missions.

Mañalich said the miners would also be given antidepressants.

"We expect that after the initial euphoria of being found, we will likely see a period of depression and anguish," he told reporters. "We are preparing medication for them. It would be naive to think they can keep their spirits up like this."

The miners have lost about 10kg each after having survived on half a glass of milk and two mouthfuls of canned tuna every 48 hours until supplies ran out. They have been told to watch their weight so they will be able to squeeze through the narrow escape shaft that is being drilled, and given tape measures to ensure they keep their waists below 90cm.

The men sent samples of water from underground tanks to the surface for testing, and rescuers are sending down fortified mineral water.

The miners are in good health, but officials are looking for ways to help ease the psychological pressure. They plan to set up special lighting in the tunnel to mimic night and day, with dull red lights to help the miners sleep.

Until now, the miners have used vehicle batteries to power lights and charge their helmet lamps.

The miners and their relatives are exchanging letters through the shaft.

"You have no idea how much my soul ached to have been underground and unable to tell you I was alive," Edison Pena said in a letter to his family. "The hardest thing is not being able to see you."

Esteban Rojas promised his wife he would finally buy her a wedding dress when he got out, and hold a church ceremony, 25 years after they wed in a registry office.

Officials are vetting letters sent by relatives, to avoid any shocks, although some disagree with the method.

"It's very important for the miners' mental health that they communicate openly with their families, and without filters, either by letter or by phone," said Claudio Barrales, a psychologist at the Universidad Central in Santiago.

The miners' relatives, who have been living in plastic tents at the minehead in a makeshift settlement dubbed Camp Hope, are gradually returning to their normal lives, but some are drawing up rosters so they can take turns at being at the mine.

The accident in the small gold and copper mine has turned a spotlight on mine safety in Chile, the world's top copper producer, although accidents are rare at big mines. President Piñera has fired officials of Chile's mining regulator and vowed to overhaul the agency.

Facing Long Mine Rescue, Chile Spares No Expense

An image of one of the 33 trapped miners was shown on a television near the mine on Thursday.
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

SAN JOSÉ MINE, Chile — The government has consulted NASA about the extreme isolation of space. Chilean Navy officers have come to discuss the emotional stress of living in a submarine. Doctors stand at the ready with antidepressants. Even a tiny home theater is being funneled down in plastic tubes to occupy the 33 miners stuck in their subterranean home.
Related

Hazards of Long Confinement (August 25, 2010)
Times Topic: Chile
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Fernando Rodriguez Chancks for The New York Times
A miner on Thursday wrote the name of Juan Aguilar, one of the trapped miners, on a flag commemorating Chile’s bicentennial.
Chile is sparing no expense or attempted innovation in trying to rescue the miners trapped by a cave-in on Aug. 5, fully aware that the country — and the world — is closely watching the ordeal.

But like everything else being done to maintain the psychological health of the miners over the weeks or months they may remain nearly half a mile underground, officials will carefully control what they are exposed to, down to the messages they receive from their families or the kind of movies that might be projected on the wall of the mine.

“Movies are possible,” said Ximena Matas, a local city councilwoman. “But the psychologists will decide what movies they will see. It’s up to them if something like ‘Avatar’ would be too upsetting.”

No fewer than seven government ministers roam the dusty brown dirt of the makeshift camp outside the mine here in Chile’s Atacama Desert, not to mention the countless politicians, millionaire donors and observers who almost outnumber the family members camping in tents.

With his popularity already slipping, President Sebastián Piñera has staked his nascent presidency on rescuing the miners, and is keeping up a full-court media press that reflects both his background as the billionaire former head of a media empire and the strategy that helped get him elected, analysts said.

“With a conviction that seemed to border on political suicide, the authorities bet all or nothing, and this time the returns will have incalculable reach,” Max Colodro Riesenberg, a professor at the University Adolfo Ibáñez, wrote in a newspaper column this week.

Government officials said they held a teleconference on Wednesday afternoon with five NASA specialists, among them doctors who put astronauts through tests that simulate the grueling isolation of a voyage to Mars.

Dr. Jaime Mañalich, the health minister, said he had urged NASA to send a team to “monitor what we are doing here” and announced Thursday that three or four NASA specialists would arrive in Chile next week to assist medical officials with the miners.

“This is a unique experience,” Dr. Mañalich said.

The miners are in relatively good spirits, officials say, but psychologists are concerned that both the miners and their families may soon suffer from post-traumatic stress once the euphoria wears off from establishing contact on Sunday. Psychologists are coaching family members and the miners on what they should say to each other and are filtering notes before they are sent down to the miners.

“They are giving good advice,” said Margarita Lagos Fuentes, 54, the mother of Claudio Lagos, a 34-year-old miner trapped below. “If they are in hell, why should we make it worse?”

Health workers are organizing a special exercise and recreation program to keep the men fit during their long wait. And they are instructing the miners about the need to distinguish between daytime and nighttime activities. Beyond the immediate 600-square-foot chamber the miners have sought refuge in, there are ample tunnels in which to move around and find a little privacy, mining company officials said.

For days after discovering the miners alive, officials carefully avoided telling them that it could take months to get them out, for the sake of preserving morale. Then on Wednesday, the health minister announced that officials had informed the miners that they would not be rescued before Chile’s Independence Day on Sept. 18 and that “we hoped to get them out before Christmas.”

The miners reacted calmly to the news, Dr. Mañalich, the minister, said. “But we have the impression that in the days to come they are going to suffer from huge challenges regarding their psychological conditions.”

The miners finally got their first solid food on Wednesday afternoon — cereal bars — after four days of liquids. Because of the small size of the borehole, which is only about four inches in diameter, health workers have been struggling to send enough food and liquid, and hoped to be able to provide each miner with 800 calories on Thursday.

Before being discovered, the miners survived on tiny bites of emergency rations and have lost an average of about 20 pounds each. Just outside the borehole, a reporter asked Marcela Zúñiga, a nurse, when the miners would receive their first empanadas, a popular Chilean pastry usually stuffed with meat. “Those are being prepared by a special team in Santiago,” Ms. Zúñiga said.

Short notes from the miners have brought tears and laughter to family members above — like the one Orlando Contreras, 19, the brother of Pedro Contreras, 25, keeps in his wallet — quickly becoming cherished property. The miners have asked family members to send toothbrushes, clean underwear and, usually in jest, comforts like beer, bottles of wine and CDs. Omar Reygadas sent a note to his family asking for a steak and television “to kill the boredom.”

The miners have also been sending their credit and bank cards to family members via the tubes, which are pulled up by a winch. Government officials said they were starting to send them soccer updates and other news.

Psychologists are helping families choose who will make their first verbal communication with the miners on a modified telephone through the borehole, officials and family members said.

Only one family member will be allowed to speak to each miner, for up to five minutes each. A videocamera may also be connected by cable to officials above, allowing family members to see the miners themselves.

The mine has had a history of accidents and was forced to shut down briefly to make safety improvements, but its owners did not carry them out, according to some lawmakers and a risk prevention specialist who worked for the company.

The miners became trapped when two levels above them collapsed, leading them to seek refuge in a shelter about 2,300 feet deep. As the days passed, the nation grew increasingly skeptical that any of the miners had survived — let alone all of them.

Now officials face a new set of questions, including whether to send the miners, many of whom smoke, cigarettes. Ultimately, it was decided that they would be sent nicotine gum instead.

That was just fine with Mrs. Fuentes, the mother of Mr. Lagos. “I’m hoping they come out of there with a more mature attitude,” she said. “Forget about beer and cigarettes.”

Chilean Miner Proposed From 2300 Feet Underground After 25 Years And Two Grandkids

Author:
cindy.casares
30 Aug 2010 |



Esteban Rojas, 44, one of the Chilean miners trapped underground at 2300 feet, sent a letter to his "girl", Jessica Ganiez, 43 saying, “When I get out, let’s buy the dress and we’ll get married.” Rojas and Ganiez have been have been together for 25 years, raised three children and are now grandparents twice over. Nothing like getting trapped in a mine to give a guy some perspective.

That's Jessica holding the letter from Esteban. She said yes, but she kind of looks like, "Miner, please." The couple are legally married, but they never had a church wedding. Which, in Latin America, would be kind of a big deal. They might have to wait until December to go through with it. Experts predict the rescue could take up to four months.

Chilean miner proposes from 2,300 feet underground
‘When I get out of here, let’s get married,’ his note reads

In the annals of unique marriage proposals, this one may take the wedding cake: Esteban Rojas asked for his sweetheart Jessica Ganiez’s hand in matrimony from a half mile underground. And even though she said yes, it might be Christmas Day before he gets a chance to kiss the bride.
Rojas, 44, one of 33 workers trapped in a gold and copper mine in Chile for the past 25 days, used the grapefruit-sized portal miners have to receive supplies and communicate with the outside world to send a message to his lady love. “When I get out, let’s buy the dress and we’ll get married,” Rojas wrote Ganiez on scrap paper.
Ganiez, 43, gave romantic Rojas an enthusiastic “yes.”

Martin Bernetti / AFP - Getty Images
Jessica Ganiez shows the letter sent by trapped miner Esteban Rojas in which he says that when he gets out they'll get married.
Rojas and Ganiez have been have been together for 25 years, raised three children and are now grandparents twice over. Yet although they were legally hitched in a civil ceremony years ago, Ganiez never got a big church wedding, as is customary in Chile.
But apparently being trapped in a hot, sweaty mine shaft helped warm up Rojas’ long-term case of cold feet. “I have tried to hint at it many times, but it never happened,” Ganiez told London’s Daily Mirror newspaper. “He always said getting married is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and he would ask me when the time was best. Obviously, what has happened made him do it.”
Rojas, a maintenance mechanic who has worked at the San Jose mine for the past six months, found himself trapped 2,300 feet underground when the mine caved in August 5. Chilean officials insist Rojas and his 32 fellow miners are not in danger, but it still may take four months to rescue them as an escape shaft is drilled.
Chile mine collapse: Facts about the amazing survival story
Supplies ranging from bedding and clean underwear to diversions such as iPods and gaming consoles have been lowered down a duct to the trapped miners. Notes from loved ones — many of whom who have set up a family camp in the unforgiving Atacama Desert, where the mine is — are also being passed back and forth.
‘Our love is deep’
Ganiez’s joy was unbridled when her wedding proposal emerged from the duct. “I thought he was never going to ask me,” Ganiez told The Mirror. “We have talked about it before, but he never asked me. I think it’s a good idea.”
Still, Ganiez said she had a bit of trepidation when, on Sunday, she finally got the chance to speak with Rojas through a line rigged down into the mine. Each miner only had 20 seconds to converse, and even with a wedding proposal in hand, Ganiez feared the “W” word might not actually come out of Rojas’ mouth.
“I was worried he might not mention it again,” Ganiez told CNN. “But he said we should get married in church. He’d asked me if I’ve already chosen the dress.” Ganiez managed to use her fleeting seconds to tell Rojas the answer was yes.
Now Ganiez is setting up a bridal registry — a new refrigerator and a food cooker are on her list. But she confided she misses her intended terribly, and will wait as long as it takes to hold him in her arms once again.
“We know the rescue will take a long time, but we won’t lose hope,” Ganiez told CNN. “He always said he planned to grow old with me, and I plan to grow old with him. Our love is very deep.”

Chile rescuers divided over how much to tell trapped miners
Controversy erupts over attempts to keep trapped miners' spirits up by censoring bad news in newspapers and family letters

Some of the Chilean miners pictured in the video in which they spoke to their families. Photograph: Codelco mining company/EPA
The 33 trapped Chilean miners were today delivered their first hot meals in nearly a month, as a debate broke out over how much information should be shared with the men before they are rescued.

The first delivery of hot food – rice with meatballs – and cheese sandwiches was a sign that efforts to improve the men's living conditions 700 metres inside the San Jose mine are gradually bearing fruit.

Rescue crews have promised that the trapped men will remain on a daily diet of about 2,500 calories, but at the rescue headquarters at the mine head, a fierce debate has begun over communication between the men and the outside world.

Government psychologists are helping family members craft letters to the men in an effort to avoid upsetting them with any bad news from home. Newspapers sent to the men are allegedly censored, with disturbing crime stories removed.

Government health officials are undecided over what movies the men should be shown on a video projector which was lowered into the shelter last week.

"They have told us to not ask any questions to the men in our letters," said Carolina Lobos, 26, daughter of trapped miner Franklin Lobos. "We are supposed to write in a positive way that will bring them up."

But Professor Nick Kanas, who has studied for over a decade the impact distance and isolation has on astronauts, and is co-author of Space Psychology and Psychiatry, warned that censoring the men's letters could create a climate of mistrust and suspicion between them and their rescuers: "I would not screen anything; if you start to do that you are setting up a base for mistrust. The miners will then ask, 'What else are they hiding from me?'"

As Chile nears its national bicentennial, aides to President Sebastián Piñera are looking for ways to include the miners in the national celebration. "The whole nation will sing the national anthem at noon on the [September] 18th," said Ena Von Baer, a spokeswoman for the president. Asked whether that included the trapped miners, Van Baer said, "When I say all Chileans, I mean every Chilean."

"That sounds tricky," said Kanas. "It would be good in that it will link the miners to the surface and they will feel they are part of a celebration. But care should be given that the miners do not feel used by anyone else for their own advantage, that will not work very well."

A poll released on Wednesday showed Piñera's approval rating has jumped 10 points to 56% since the mining drama began nearly a month ago. Throughout the rescue operation, Piñera has taken centre stage, positioning himself as the hard-nosed executive who will spare no cost to save the lives of his countrymen.

Information about the miners' health has been released to the public, including a controversial statement by Jaime Manalich, the Chilean minister of health, who diagnosed five of the men as suffering from depression, then the next day announced they had been cured.

"That is probably not such a good idea," said Lawrence Palinkas, a medical anthropologist and professor of social policy and health at the University of Southern California, when asked about making the depression diagnosis public. "These diagnoses carry a certain stigma … and the miners have no control over the conditions which caused this – which makes it all the more important that the government protect confidentiality."

The selective release of video footage of the men has raised the question of how the Chilean government seeks to both help the miners while also shaping the perceptions of a worldwide audience.

The latest video of the miners, a brief take with no audio released, showing the men in clean red shirts, many having had a fresh shave, was in stark contrast to the dirty and tired faces seen last week.

Trapped Chilean miners' wives, mistresses in tug of war over compensation
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London, Sep 3 (ANI): Wives and mistresses of the 33 Chilean miners trapped in the San Jose mine are reportedly engaged in a tug of war over compensation announced by the government.


Buzz up!
According to The Telegraph, at least five wives came face to face with mistresses whose existence was kept from them by their husbands, who have been trapped more than 2,300 feet below a cave since August 5 this year.


Government officials are considering asking the 33 trapped miners to name those they want to claim the benefits entitled to them in a bid to solve problems on the surface.

According to Red Cross workers, some of the miners have children from numerous women, all of whom are now claiming their right over the compensation. So far, the aid providers have come across five families, but believe that more such cases might pop up in the near future.

Some women turned up at the camp to discover that their partners already had a wife and children whom they knew nothing about, the paper reports.

One miner reportedly has four women fighting over him. All of them, including, a first wife he never divorced, his live-in partner, a mother of a child he had several years ago, and a woman who claims to be his current girlfriend gathered at the camp to claim their rights.

The team of psychologists charged with ensuring the mental welfare of the men below ground are attempting keep such developments from reaching the miners. (ANI)

Trapped Chilean Miners Delivered Gorgeous Women, Condoms and Alcohol
written by: NickFun


Most of the miners admit they don't live this well when they are free
Rescuers helping the 33 stranded miners in Chile have managed to send the stranded men several beautiful contortionists, 300 condoms, vodka, cranberry juice and marijuana in a effort to keep the men optimistic during their days trapped 2,300 feet underground.

“We found some ladies that were able to squeeze down that hole”, said Philipe Arroyo, one of the rescuers. “Also we acquiesced to their requests for marijuana, alcohol and condoms. However, we told them no tobacco. We had to draw the line somewhere”.

“I'm really starting to like it here”, said trapped miner Julio Garcia. “I'm not sure I want to leave!”

In addition to the items already listed, the miners have been delivered gourmet meals daily, liberal snacks and an assortment of caviar.

Many of the rescuers wish they were in the mine.