Peru appeals for help to free trapped miners

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Peru's government has appealed to mining companies for heavy equipment and experts to help free nine miners trapped for four days in a copper mine.

Several dozen rescue workers have been using pickaxes and shovels to try to remove the eight metres of collapsed earth and rock blocking the entrance of the mine, a horizontal shaft dug into a mountainside 175 miles (280km) south-east of Lima.

Firefighters have fashioned wooden beams to support the debris removal but their relatively crude efforts prompted the mining minister, Jorge Merino, to appeal for help from mining companies.

Thursday's collapse followed a blast set by the miners themselves in a mine last exploited commercially in the 1980s.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/09/peru-appeals-help-trapped-miners

[Skittles]

1. K&R!!!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I hope the world responds, and the miners are rescued.

It is such a dangerous line of work.

[KamaAina]

3. Chile, their neighbor to the south, faced a similar situation recently

and got all their miners out with flying colors. Perhaps they could help.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Tunnel specialists bolster Peru mine rescue effort

Tunnel specialists bolster Peru mine rescue effort
Published on 9 April 2012 - 6:07pm

Tunnel reinforcement specialists arrived Monday to reinforce shafts at a copper mine in southern Peru where nine workers have been trapped for four days, providing a boost for frantic relatives.

The addition of 20 specialists from private mining companies came after Oscar Valdes, cabinet chief to President Ollanta Humala, told reporters of new roof collapses inside the Cabeza de Negro mine, 325 kilometers (200 miles) south of Lima.

The miners have been trapped 250 meters (820 feet) underground in a horizontal tunnel since Thursday when a shaft collapsed.

The nine, aged 22 to 59 and including a father and son, were not injured and remain together. They were being supplied with oxygen, water and soup through a metal tube that they also use to communicate with rescue workers.

More:
http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/tunnel-specialists-bolster-peru-mine-rescue-effort-0

[pinboy3niner]

5. Thanks for the update

That's good news!

[Judi Lynn]

6. Peru making all-out efforts to rescue mine workers trapped in Ica

11:05
Peru making all-out efforts to rescue mine workers trapped in Ica

Lima, Apr. 09 (ANDINA). Peruvian Prime Minister Oscar Valdes said the government is making all-out efforts to rescue the nine mine workers trapped underground by a rockfall at the Cabeza de Negro copper and gold mine in the south of the country.

"Peru and the state are filled with solidarity. We are all together to rescue these nine lives," he told reporters.

He said the families of the miners "are satisfied with the fact that the government will make all-out efforts to rescue them as soon as possible."

Valdes said he is coordinating food provisions to ensure the continuity of the rescue work, and noted that the government is working in coordination with the National Police and Civil Defense.

More:
http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/noticia-peru-making-allout-efforts-to-rescue-mine-workers-trapped-in-ica-407461.aspx