Eight of 33 trapped miners hoisted to surface in Chile
16:42, 13 October 2010
MOSCOW. October 13. KAZINFORM Eight miners trapped in the Chilean San Jose Mine were raised to the surface after 69 days underground , Chile's state TV channel said on Wednesday; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.
On August 5, a 700,000-ton rock collapsed trapping the miners deep in the gold and copper mine at 700 meters underground.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera then made an unprecedented decision to start a rescue operation involving NASA specialists, drilling experts from a dozen countries that designed a special capsule for hoisting up the trapped miners.
The rescue operation started on Tuesday evening with the first miner, Florencio Avalos, being raised to the surface. He was greeted by excited relatives and President Pinera who was waiting anxiously near the rescue shaft; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.
See www.en.rian.ru for full version.