First capsule lowered into Chilean mine
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Chilean rescuers started to lower the first capsule into a collapsed mine Tuesday night, a prelude to the operation to pull out 33 miners trapped deep underground for 69 days.
Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told a press conference earlier in the day that there will be two tests of lowering a capsule into the mine before the rescue operation started.
The first test was about lowering down the Fenix Two Capsule 65 meters underground and the second will lower down the Capsule some 85 meters down.
If the tests go well, four rescuers, including paramedics, will be lowered into the mine, one at a time, and conduct medical check of the miners's physical and mental conditions before pulling them out.
Chilean authorities have announced a roster of the trapped miners, with Florencio Avalos, 31, to be the first man out, followed by Mario Sepulveda, 39, Juan Illanes, 52, and Bolivian Carlos Mamani, the only non-Chilean among 33 trapped workers.
The miners were trapped 700 meters underground on Aug. 5 after the mine they were working at collapsed, near the city of Copiapo, 800 km north of the capital city of Santiago.
They were found alive on Aug. 22 and since then the Chilean government aided by other countries have been working to rescue the miners, in a rescue work never seen before in the world. No one in history has been trapped underground for so long and survived.
