Finally, a way out for Chile’s 33 trapped miners

Rescuers with a powerful drill broke through to the underground chamber where 33 Chilean miners have been stranded since Aug. 5, signaling that the end to their ordeal could be near.

The U.S.-made Schramm T130 drill began boring down at the San Jose mine on Sept. 3, as one of three drilling operations racing to free the miners. They were discovered alive on Aug. 22 with a different bore hole after authorities feared they had all perished in a collapse at the mine in the Atacama desert in northern Chile.

The long-awaited signal that the drill had broken through came at about 8 a.m. local time (5 a.m. PST) when horns blew throughout the mine, setting off cheers of jubilation among the miner families, many of whom have held vigil at the desert mine in what has been dubbed “Camp Hope.”

The government rescue team headed by mines Minister Laurence Golborne is expected to decide within hours among three options that will determine the start date of the rescue operation. The procedure will involve lowering a half-ton, 28-inch diameter metal capsule that will be used to hoist the men to the surface roughly 2,300 feet above the “refuge” where they have huddled since the collapse.

The first option is to apply no metal casing at all to the interior walls of the hole. More likely is the second option, which would involve applying metal casing to part of the hole, meaning the rescue could start Monday night, according to health minister Jaime Manalich. The casing would be in the form of 36-foot long metal pipes lowered one by one on top of one another.

Option three would be to line the entire length of the hole with metal tubing, which would delay the rescue operation for seven to 10 days.

Under any scenario, the rescue will not happen until miners use explosives to widen the mouth of the hole where it meets the underground tunnel. Miguel Fortt, an independent mining engineer and consultant who is advising the miner families, said in an interview Friday that the widening is to ensure that the metal capsule has room to settle on the mine’s uneven floor without damaging the tube-like enclosure.

He said the miners are accustomed to using explosives and that the widening should not involve any great additional risks.