To the thirty-three Chilean miners excavating in the San José copper and gold mine in Copiapó, Chile, Thursday, August 5th seemed just like any other ordinary working day. The miners arose early in the morning, ate a quick breakfast, adorned their working garb, and prepared themselves for the day that lay ahead. Little did they know, this day would mark the beginning of a two-month underground nightmare that they will never forget.
According to the Empresa Minera San Esteban mining company, at 14:00 Chile Standard Time (CLT), the main ramp of the San José mine collapsed, sending cascades of rock and debris tumbling down upon the unsuspecting miners. These miners, whose ages ranged from nineteen to sixty-three, were trapped 2,300 feet below the surface in a pre-established shelter that contained only two days’ worth of provisions. Unsure of how long they would be forced to wait until they were rescued, or whether they would even be rescued, shift foreman Luis Urzua meticulously divided up the food and water supplies among the men. Each miner was permitted to consume half of a plastic spoonful of fish each day, as well as a small amount of the impure water that ran through the mine.
When the miners did not return from underground, a rescue mission was immediately launched to locate them. However, despite the rescue team’s all-out dedication to the effort and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera’s assurance that the authorities were “going to do everything humanely possible to rescue alive the 33 people who [were] trapped,” no connection could be established between the lost miners and the surface. The team was close to despair. Then, on August 22nd, an astonishing seventeen days after the miners were initially trapped, contact was finally made. A probe sent down by authorities had returned to the surface bearing a note: “estamos bien en el refugio los 33.” In English, this translates to “the thirty-three of us are safe in the refuge.” The miners had survived—so far.
Over the next few days, a plan was concocted to drill a vertical shaft to directly connect the underground shelter to the surface 2,300 feet above it. Designated Plan A, this method was estimated to take a minimum of three to four months to complete. As engineers searched for an alternative, authorities successfully installed a series of three narrow boreholes that began above ground and led toward the miners. These holes served to provide the miners with supplies, communication lines, and ventilation. It was now possible for the rescue team on the surface to assist the miners below. While a nurse mediated the miners’ diet, a fitness trainer began to hold videoconferences with the men in order to ensure that they would be thin enough to eventually squeeze through the rescue shaft. In addition, the men were each given the opportunity to speak with their family members for twenty seconds.
As this was occurring, plans B and C were being formulated. Plan B would involve the use of a specialized tool that was usually used to bore water holes to gradually expand the supply hole until it was wide enough for an escape capsule to fit through. The drill would enter the ground at an eighty-degree angle, and tunnel through 2,034 feet until arriving at the area of the shelter used as a mechanical workshop. Plan B was also entitled the “Saint Lorenzo Operation,” in honor of one of the miner’s patron saints. Plan C, on the other hand, would drill directly through 1,969 feet of rock and earth. The authorities began to simultaneously put plans A and B into effect. However, after maintenance issues forced the discontinuation of plan A, plan B was the only one left operating. On September 17, just one day after the termination of plan A, the precursor borehole involved in plan B reached the miners. Although this qualified as a triumph, the hole was only twelve inches wide. It would be another couple of weeks before the shaft could be expanded to the proper width. Authorities began implementing plan C as a backup plan.
Plan C, however, proved to be unnecessary. On October 9, the plan B drill reached the miners. Cheers erupted throughout the temporary camp set up by friends and family members at the rescue site as they learned of the drill’s success. Two days later, Andres Sougarret, who had led the operation, stated that the operation was almost complete.
Finally, on October 13 at 12:11 a.m., sixty-nine days after the initial collapsed of the mine, the first miner was pulled to the surface. The world held its breath as the remaining miners were slowly pulled to the surface in an operation that lasted all day. The last miner to reach safety was shift foreman Luis Urzua, who is credited with keeping the men alive for the first 17 days through his honesty, strong leadership, and instructions to the men. When he emerged from the mine nearly twenty-four hours after the first miner was rescued, the world collectively breathed a sigh of relief. One could almost hear the world-wide applause as President Piñera jubilantly announced to a weary, but smiling, Urzua, “Mr. Urzua, your shift is over.”