9 August, 2010
The fate of 33 Chilean miners is still uncertain today, following a roof collapse on Thursday afternoon, 5 August, inside a copper and gold mine owned by Campañia Minera San Esteban Primera in the country’s northern Atacama desert.
Today, a series of six holes were being bored to where the miners are thought to be. Sound-detection equipment will then be used in hopes of making contact with the miners.
Rescue attempts on Saturday, 7 August, had to be suspended after further roof collapses occurred. Teams had traversed some 240 metres down ventilation shafts in efforts to reach the trapped miners when the cave-ins happened. The miners are trapped some 450 metres beneath the surface.
There is an emergency shelter near that level that contains food, water, and oxygen for up to 72 hours. But one miner familiar with the shelter said it was small and could not hold 33 persons.
The mine has a history of underground land-slides, and only a few weeks ago a miner lost a leg after he was trapped by fallen rock. In 2007, three miners died inside the mine and an adjoining mine owned by the company due to the same set of circumstances.
Both a company spokesman and a legislative deputy from the region were quoted as saying the mine area has great geological faults, particularly in its deeper regions. The Secretary-General of the San Esteban Primera Mine Workers’ Union, Javier Castillo, said workers had continually warned of the hazards inside the mine dating back to 2003.
Campañia Minera San Esteban is a junior Chilean mining concern that at one time was 40% owned by Cobre Mining Co., an extension of the former Aurex Resources of Vancouver, Canada. It is unclear if the North American company still has a stake in the San Esteban mine, some 800 kilometres north of Santiago near the city of Copiapo.
Chile is a major global mining country that has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.