Colorado mining experts said that the engineering and psychology behind the ongoing rescue of 33 trapped miners in Chile are uncharted territory.

Mr Robert Ferriter the senior safety and health specialist and longtime director of the mine safety program at Colorado School of Mines said that They're going down a slippery path. The miners have been trapped nearly half a mile underground since a tunnel collapse at the gold and copper mine on August 5 and their rescue could take until Christmas as rescuers drill a new shaft to pull them out.

The miners' precarious situation is unique to experts most men lost underground for as long as 17 days are not found alive. It's unheard of to expect those people to be.

The Chilean miners carefully managed their meager rations, which were intended to last two days, and made them stretch more than two weeks. Each miner had survived on 2 spoonfuls of tuna, a half glass of milk and bites of crackers and peaches every other day. Chilean media reported Wednesday that the men must keep their waistlines at 35 inches or less to fit through the planned rescue tunnel.

For as long as the next 4 months, a pipeline the diameter of a grapefruit is providing food, water, medicine and contact with the outside world. The miners share a chamber the size of a studio apartment although rescuers were working to identify as much as 1 1/4 miles of area where they could walk and exercise. Still, the temperature is 90 degrees, and sanitation is among the challenges. One of the miners first supply requests was toothbrushes.

Chilean officials have sought out National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials and submarine experts for advice on helping confined people. The only such confinement is US history was at the Sunshine Mine in Idaho, where two people were rescued seven days after a mine fire killed 81 in May 1972.

Mr Ferriter said that he hopes rescuers are also working on a better plan than another vertical shaft from the surface. I hope they don't drill down a thousand feet and stick the bit and have to start over. That would be a terrible blow to those miners. In other tunnel collapses, rescuers dig around the fallen area and use mostly existing tunnels.

Mr Ferriter said that although Climax Molybdenum Company's Henderson Mine near Empire is a little deeper about 2,500 feet, it features numerous escape ways with modern safety practices. He said that the possibilities of something like this happening at that mine are very, very remote.

Mr Stuart Sanderson president of the Colorado Mining Association said that "Here in the US we take every step possible to make sure miners can get out safely and quickly. And our industry in Colorado has a great safety record overall."

(Sourced from www.denverpost.com)