19 August 2010 | News | Extractive industries
Horror
Rescue team may be close to the 33 workers trapped underground in Chile. Worrying Figures
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The team that is working to rescue the 33 mining workers trapped underground in the Atacama region 15 days ago is close to being successful. One of the drills is only 30 meters away from the place where the workers are supposed to be.
Chilean Mining Minister, Laurence Golborne, said that one of the drills reached 670 meters deep on Wednesday night, and is now located only 30 meters away from the workers. “It may be possible to get to them tomorrow (Thursday)”, said the Minister, according to AFP news agency.
Golborne informed the families of the workers about the possibilities of finding them, although he warned that “it is not that we are about to make contact”, but we are definitely “on the right path”.
On August 5th, San Jose mine, owned by San Esteban company, collapsed. The mine was located 800 km to the north of Santiago, capital city of the country.
From that moment, negative information about San Esteban started to appear. Several warnings had already been made about the poor safety conditions of workers, including in San Jose Mine. Workers and unionists had blamed the company for the death of three mining workers, and they even requested the closure of San Jose mine.
According to Prensa Latina, parliament representative Lautaro Carmona, said that there were public documents that explained the risks of working in San Jose Mine. On July 9th, after a worker lost his leg working in the deposit, the Labour Agency was notified, and several irregularities were found, said Carmona.
Meanwhile, secretary of the San Esteban´s union, Javier Castillo, said that there was no way to escape from the mine, and that the ventilation system was inadequate. “The hill has been creaking for two months. And we raised our concerns about the mine in 2003”, he stated.
A week ago, authorities had informed that it was extremely difficult to find the 33 workers alive. However, now Sebastián Piñera, Chilean President, said that there were reasons to think that the workers are still alive. “We have reasons to believe that there is oxygen and water where the workers are trapped, and those are the crucial elements for their survival”, he said.
On Monday, it was reported that the rescue efforts were going to be called off inside the mine, due to risks of another collapse. From that moment on, only drills are used.
Information provided by the Geology and Mining General Service according to Prensa Latina states that 373 workers have died in Chile in the last 10 years in mining accidents, and 31 people have died in 2010.
