Chilean rescue effort mining new territory in engineering, psychology

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Chilean rescue effort mining new territory in engineering, psychology Posted: 27 Aug 2010 12:26 AM PDT Colorado mining experts say the engineering and psychology behind the ongoing rescue of 33 trapped miners in Chile are uncharted territory. "They're going down a slippery path," said Robert Ferriter, the senior safety and health specialist and longtime director of the mine-safety program at Colorado School of Mines. The miners have been trapped nearly half a mile underground since a tunnel collapse at the gold and copper mine on Aug. 5, and their rescue could take until Christmas as rescuers drill a new shaft to pull them out. The miners' precarious situation is unique to experts — most men lost underground for as long as 17 days are not found alive. "It's unheard of to expect those people to be down there for four months," said Ferriter, who knows of no studies conducted on the effects of extended confinement underground. The Chilean miners carefully managed their meager rations, which were intended to last two days, and made them stretch more than two weeks. Each miner had survived on two spoonfuls of tuna, a half glass of milk, and bites of crackers and peaches every other day, according to The Associated Press. Chilean media reported Wednesday that the men must keep their waistlines at 35 inches or less to fit through the planned rescue tunnel. For as long as the next four months, a pipeline the diameter of a grapefruit is providing food, water, medicine and contact with the outside world. The miners share a chamber the size of a studio apartment, although rescuers were working to identify as much as 1 1/4 miles of area where they could walk and exercise. Still, the temperature is 90 degrees, and sanitation is among the challenges. One of the miners' first supply requests was toothbrushes. Chilean officials have sought out National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials and submarine experts for advice on helping confined people. The only such confinement is U.S. history was at the Sunshine Mine in Idaho, where two people were rescued seven days after a mine fire killed 81 in May 1972. Ferriter said he hopes rescuers are also working on a better plan than another vertical shaft from the surface. "I hope they don't drill down a thousand feet and stick the bit and have to start over," he said. "That would be a terrible blow to those miners." In other tunnel collapses, rescuers dig around the fallen area and use mostly existing tunnels, Ferriter said. Mines in Colorado today have little in common with the Chilean mine, experts said. Although Climax Molybdenum Co.'s Henderson Mine near Empire is a little deeper, about 2,500 feet, it features numerous "escape ways" with modern safety practices, Ferriter said. "The possibility of something like this happening at that mine are very, very remote," he said. The Chilean mine has a history of safety violations, and experts have criticized its lack of alternative escape routes. "Here in the U.S., we take every step possible to make sure miners can get out safely and quickly," said Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Mining Association. "And our industry in Colorado has a great safety record, overall." The last mine disaster in Colorado was in April 1981, when 15 men were killed in an explosion in the Dutch Creek No. 1 Mine near Redstone, according to the U.S. Mine Rescue Association. Since 1883, Colorado has recorded 43 incidents with multiple fatalities, killing a total of 900 miners, according to the association. Colorado today has 14 working mines, nine of them coal mines that use open pits or drill in horizontally, according to the Colorado Mining Association. The state's deep mining past, however, is evidenced by more than 23,000 abandoned mines across the state, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, which oversees safety and rescue training. Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent.

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