Work to line the top of an escape shaft with metal tubing is expected to finish in the next few hours at the mine where 33 men are trapped in northern Chile.
A winch and pulley will be installed and the shaft tested before the rescue begins, it is hoped, on Wednesday.
Amid the final preparations for the rescue the Chilean health minister said some of the miners were gallantly insisting they should be last to leave.
And some wonderful pictures on the BBC website here.
I’m sure the vast majority of Learning from Dogs readers will be on top of the news that is spreading around the globe reporting that the Chilean miners have been reached. Here’s the BBC:
Rescuers have drilled through to the underground chamber where 33 Chilean miners have been trapped since August.
The breakthrough at the San Jose mine came shortly after 0800 local time (1200 GMT).
It means efforts to remove the miners through the tunnel should begin within days. Tim Willcox was at the mine when the breakthrough happened.
Rescuer workers have broken through to the 33 Chilean miners trapped half a mile underground.
Engineers and relatives of the men began celebrating on Saturday morning after the escape shaft reached the point where the miners have been stuck now for over two months.
Mining minister Laurence Golborne warned though it could take days before attempts start to remove the men from the San Jose mine.
All fabulous news.
Picture from the Daily Mail online.
Contact: Rescue workers broke through to the 33 trapped Chilean miners earlier on Saturday morning
One of the problems of our modern media is that there is so much competition for news that old stories frequently just seem to disappear.
So it was delightful to find in last Saturday’s Daily Telegraph news that the rescue shaft had achieved a very important milestone – the pilot shaft, 12 inches in diameter, had broken through to the chamber where the miners patiently wait for their rescue.
Rescuers working to release 33 trapped Chilean miners have achieved a pivotal breakthrough by drilling an escape shaft through to the underground chamber occupied by the men.
Let’s all pray to keep the flame of hope burning brightly for these guys.
On the 24th August, Learning from Dogs published a piece about 33 Chilean miners trapped underground. I’m sure many read that.
Well the BBC are still covering the event and their news web site has an informative update on what is happening.
The plan to rescue the 33 men trapped 700m (2,300ft) underground in the San Jose copper mine in Chile is a complex undertaking that could take engineers until the end of the year to achieve.
In a similar operation in 2002, American rescuers spent two days drilling a hole just wide enough to fit a man to rescue nine miners trapped underground.
The Americans had to drill down just 74m. By comparison, the plan to rescue the 33 men in Chile nearly three quarters of a kilometre underground is a much greater challenge. But, says John Urosek, who took part in the 2002 Quecreek mine rescue in Pennsylvania, it is not “mission impossible.”
“I would put this at the tough end of things. It’s not mission impossible but it’s a difficult mission,” says Mr Urosek who is now chief of mine emergency operations for the US Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The key to the operation is the use of a specialist drilling machine, designed to bore deep narrow holes through any rock to a depth of just over a kilometre.
So if you are having a bad day, stop and think about these 33 souls buried some 4.5 miles (7km) inside a Chilean mine some 2,300 feet (700m) down .
The announcement that they were still alive was made on Sunday by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.
Surrounded by relatives of the miners who have gathered outside the mine, he held up a note from the miners saying: “All 33 of us are fine in the shelter.”
“It will take months to get them out,” Mr Pinera said. “They’ll come out thin and dirty, but whole and strong.”
Todd Russell, an Australian miner who was trapped 3,000ft underground in Tasmania after an earthquake in 2006, said he and a second miner who survived the collapse relied on each other for support.
“It’s amazing what your body can do,” he told the BBC World Service. “We survived on hope and courage, and each other, [and] we were lucky enough to have a bit of underground mine water.”
“They’re lucky that they’ve got 33 guys there with them that they can rely on each other,” Mr Russell said.
Here’s some footage of their rescue:
Let’s all pray that these 33 Chilean miners end up arm-in-arm back on the surface as Todd and Brant did.
Learning from Dogs 