Suddenly there was a thunderous rumble deep within the mountain and everything shook.
Dirt and rocks the size of a man’s fist rained down.
Amidst choking clouds of dust, they crouched low and ran for cover.
It was every miner’s worst nightmare...a cave in.
Thursday, August 5, 2010 - The day began like any other for the day shift of miners working
at the San José copper and gold mine in the Atacama Desert 28 miles (45km) north of the
city of Copiapó, in northern Chile.
However, at about 2 pm local time, the mine had a massive cave in.
A group of miners working near the entrance escaped, but a second group of 33 miners were
trapped 2,300 ft (700 meters) underground.
Even worse, there were 3 miles (5 kilometers) of underground tunnels between them and the
entrance of the mine.
Soon the whole world was watching as the race to save the miners folded.
Were all 33 miners rescued?
For how long were they trapped underground?
How did they remain calm while waiting for help?
Working at the San Jose mine was not only dirty and dangerous, but lonely too.
The mine was open around the clock with men usually working 7 day tours with 12 hour shifts.
Most of the miners lived far away, and would come to stay at rooming houses in Copiapó
to work for a period at the mine.
While the wages were good, the job carried the possibility of death.
Men had been digging for gold and copper at the San Jose mine since 1889.
The whole mountain was a carved out warren of pits, canyons and valleys connected by
passageways and roads.
The central road linking all the tunnels to the entrance of the mine was called the Ramp.
The Ramp zigzagged in a series of winding switchbacks down through the center of the
mine.
The men toiled deep in the bowels of the mine where there was still metal to be found.
Geothermal heat radiating from the earth’s core made the mine hotter the deeper the men
went.
In addition to the heat, conditions were cramped, dusty, humid, and dark.
The San Jose copper mine was also notorious for its poor safety record.
Owned by the San Esteban Mining Company, the mine had a history of serious injuries and
fatalities dating back many years.
Several times the owners paid off victims or their families and got cases dropped.
In 2007 after an accident, Sernageomin, the Chilean government regulatory body responsible
for supervising mining safety standards, ordered the mine closed.
However, less than a year later the mine was back in operation, having pulled some strings,
even though it had not complied with the safety measures ordered by Sernageomin.
About halfway through the day shift on August 5th, an enormous block of diorite, estimated
to weigh seven hundred thousand tons, suddenly broke loose inside the mountain and fell through
the layers of the mine, collapsing sections of the Ramp and other passageways.
Miners who were working on different levels sheltered in place and then headed for the
designated shelter once the initial cave in was over.
At the small emergency shelter known as The Refuge, the miners discovered that all connections
to the surface had been lost.
The meant the electricity, and the ventilation and intercom systems were no longer working.
54 year old shift manager Luis Urzúa and a small group of men went exploring to see
if they could find a way to the surface.
They were able to make it about a third of the way up through an evacuation route, only
to find that the mining company had once again cut corners and had not completed the emergency
ladder, making it impossible to escape.
Furthermore, within about 48 hours another cave in would completely block the emergency
exit route.
The miners were stuck.
Meanwhile, in the Refuge some of the miners had started eating cookies and milk from the
emergency provisions.
Many of them hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before.
Commonly the miners avoided eating before their shifts to avoid vomiting caused by the
brutal work conditions.
When the search party returned to the Refuge, Urzúa counted the miners--they numbered 33
in total, an unusually high number of staff.
There happened to be several men working overtime and actually no one man had met all of the
other miners.
Urzua took control; he was straightforward about the dire situation they were in.
He took an inventory of the remaining emergency rations: there was one can of salmon, one
can of peaches, one can of peas, eighteen cans of tuna, 24 litres of milk--8 of which
turned out to be spoiled, ninety-three small packages of cookies, minus a couple packages
that had already been eaten, and some expired medications.
There were also ten litres of bottled water.
Additionally, there were thousands of litres of water stored in tanks, but the water was
tainted with oil, having been used to cool industrial machinery.
Meanwhile on the surface, rescue responders, other miners and the miners’ families rushed
to the mine location to try to mount a rescue.
On August 6th, rescue workers, who were attempting to reach the Refuge via a ventilation shaft
were forced to turn back when a new rock slide blocked the duct.
When the president of Chile Sebastián Piñera learned of the cave in, he realized that the
government would have to take charge of the situation.
The San Esteban Mining Company simply wasn’t capable of mounting a complex rescue.
Against his aides’ advice, on August 7th, Piñera flew to the mine to meet some of the
miners’ families.
The president committed to bringing the miners home, dead or alive, sparing no expense.
The government turned to Chile’s largest mining company, National Copper Corporation
of Chile or Codelco, for help.
Codelco recommended André Sougarret, a mining engineer with over 20 years of experience.
To help him, Codelco handpicked a team of experts.
The Chilean government also contacted other governments and mining experts worldwide.
Over the next few weeks, various companies donated equipment, labor and sent consultants
and workers to help with the rescue.
Also private donations poured in to help cover the massive cost of the rescue, which by the
end reached upward of $20 million USD.
When Sougarret arrived on scene, the San Jose mine site was chaotic.
Sougarret quickly established a perimeter, allowing only professionals in the restricted
access area of the mine.
A tent city, Campamento Esperanza -Camp Hope- quickly sprung up just outside the perimeter,
populated by the press, miners’ loved ones and curious onlookers.
Nearly every day, Sougarret personally updated Camp Hope on the rescue, often with the assistance
of René Aguilar, a risk expert from Codelco with a degree in psychology.
Sougarret and his team gathered as much information as possible to fully assess the situation.
There was a chance that if the miners had survived the collapse and followed protocol,
they might still be alive.
However, the clock was ticking, if the miners were still alive could the rescuers find them
before they perished?
Mining engineers begin drilling boreholes 5 inches (12cm) in diameter into the mine
to try to locate the miners.
This process was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack; there weren’t any
completely accurate maps for the 121 year old mine and also drilling technology is imprecise.
Drilling down to a target 2,300 (700 meters) feet deep with a 5% margin of error meant
that drills could end up anywhere in a base area of over 40,000 square feet.
As the Refuge was about 530 square feet in size, the chance that a drill would find it
was about 1.25%.
Meanwhile, down below the miners were surviving on minimal rations.
Each miner received two cookies, a spoonful of tuna, and few ounces of milk mixed with
water about every 48 hours.
Urzua setup a 12-hour shift schedule and used the headlights of mining trucks to simulate
sunlight.
The miners established work areas, a sleep area and a sanitary facility.
Tempers frequently flared and the miners went through periods of hopelessness and lethargy.
They itched and stank.
Most quickly resorted to wearing as few clothes as possible because of the heat, but continued
to wear their hard hats due to the mine’s instability.
Not long after the cave in, one of the miners asked Don José Henríquez, a Christian to
lead a prayer.
Though the miners were of different faiths, others joined in.
Henríquez became known as the Pastor and began leading the men in daily prayers.
The spiritual support helped bring unity and a sense of calm to the group.
The men passed time by sharing stories about their lives.
They began calling themselves Los 33.
On August 8th, 3 days after the cave in the men heard the unmistakable sound of a drill.
They were excited, but knew it would take several days for the drill to reach them.
The miners quickly resorted to drinking the industrial usage water as their supplies dwindled.
They dealt with thick, sticky mud as the water used to limit friction while drilling seeped
into their area.
They despaired when they heard the sound of the drill beneath them; the rescuers had missed
the Refuge, drilling past it.
By now the miners were emancipated and sluggish, hallucinations and nightmares were frequent;
many wrote farewell letters to their families.
The rescuers drilled around the clock for over two weeks.
On August 22, a borehole broke through to a ramp about 66 feet (20 meters) from the
Refuge.
The miners used a wrench to tap on the drill bit.
Up top, the rescuers thought they heard something and were excited to find notes attached when
they pulled up the drill bit three hours later.
One note said “We are well in the shelter, the 33”.
The messages were carefully worded and dated, a sign that the miners were not disoriented.
Making contact with the still alive miners sparked a celebratory mood throughout Camp
Hope and even all of Chile.
The rescuers had a daunting task ahead of them; now that they had found the miners alive,
how could they sustain them and get them out of the mine?
The rescuers quickly sent down a probe with a video camera.
Next came a telephone receiver.
Then vials of glucose gel.
Having consulted scientists from NASA who had experience in sustaining humans in the
hostile environment of space, the rescuers slowly began to feed the men foods with specific
nutrients, gradually increasing portion sizes, allowing for proper recovery.
While the boreholes were being drilled, other teams of experts had brainstormed and tested
various plans for rescue.
None of the ventilation or existing evacuation shafts were considered viable, and they quickly
realized that a rescue shaft was going to have to be drilled.
It would be slow going through hard rock--the extraction shaft could take weeks, if not
months.
Ultimately, the rescue operation decided to pursue multiple solutions at once to ensure
the best possible outcome.
The plans known as A, B, and C employed three different drilling methods.
Plan A was considered more reliable, but was slowest.
Plan B could be rapidly adjusted, but its technology was unproven.
Plan C offered the greatest speed—but less precision.
Over the next 52 days, teams A, B and C worked in parallel to drill rescue shafts.
Plan A used a massive Strata 950 raise borer drilling rig to drill and widen a circular
hole.
Plan B used a Schramm Inc.
T130XD air core drill which implemented cluster hammer technology to widen existing boreholes.
Plan C employed a RIG-421 oil drilling rig which drilled a wide escape shaft in a single
pass.
Meanwhile, experts, including the Chilean Navy and NASA worked on building and testing
a steel rescue capsule for transporting the miners to the surface.
The original borehole was widened so various items could be sent to the miners.
Other boreholes were drilled for ventilation.
The miners became active participants in their rescue.
They moved to a new shelter in a less muddy area and reinforced the ceiling, removing
loose rocks.
Via phone, Urzua had frequent discussions with Sougarret regarding the technical aspects
of the rescue operation.
Newspapers, a palm-size television projector and gifts were lowered into the mine.
The miners learned that they had become worldwide celebrities.
Promises of fame and fortune and ongoing ominous rumbling from the still shifting mountain
exacerbated tensions between the 33 miners.
Finally, the Plan B team broke through to the Refuge on October 9, 2010.
Plan A had drilled 85% or 1,962 feet (598 meters) of the required depth and Plan C,
which had suffered frequent setbacks had only drilled 62% or 1220 feet (372) meters.
Over the next 2 days, the rescue shaft was widened and portions of it were quickly encased
for reinforcement.
Safety tests were run.
Finally on October 12, 2010, just before midnight, the first miner got in the narrow capsule
dubbed the Phoenix, and began the slow ascent up the extraction shaft to the surface.
Nearly 20 minutes later, for the first time in months mine foreman Florencio Ávalos felt
the cool breeze of a spring night touch his face.
He arrived on the surface to a cheering crowd, his eyes shielded by sunglasses for protection,
since they were no longer used to bright light.
One by one, over the next 24 hours, the miners were winched to surface as the crowd cheered.
President Piñera was on hand to greet each miner as they arrived.
Overwhelmed, the miners happily reunited with their families.
More than a billion TV viewers watched the rescue proceedings live.
In all, the miners were trapped for a record 69 days some 2,300 (700 meters) feet underground.
There was a 17 day search to locate the miners, and then a 52 day rescue, during which the
miners had to be sustained and then hauled up to safety.
No one was ever been punished for the disaster.
In 2013, after 3 years of investigation, prosecutors said that there wasn’t enough evidence to
file charges against anyone from the San Esteban Mining Company.
The miners have had many problems since their ordeal.
They were exploited by the media.
Though they had some counseling, many suffered PTSD.
After a whirlwind overseas tour, many had trouble reconnecting with family and settling
down to ordinary life.
The miners felt that they were cheated out the profits of a movie made about their rescue.
Many promised donations and job offers never materialized.
Those of the 33 who wanted to return to mining, had an especially hard time finding work.
There was a stigma against them; mining companies knew that they had government contacts so
they wouldn’t hesitate to call if safety regulations weren’t being followed.
Nearly 10 years on, the San Jose gold and copper mine remains closed.
A small onsite museum displays relics of the rescue operation, honoring the bravery of
the miners and the creative expertise & spirit of cooperation which succeeded in the miraculous
rescue of Los 33.
Do you think you could survive a mine cave in?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video Trapped In A Cave With Water Rising - Thai
Cave Rescue!
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See you next time!”