2 months later, Chile mine rescue begins

A rescue worker is finally going down to the 33 trapped miners after good luck wishes from Chile's president.

Manuel Rodriguez, a mining rescue expert with Chile's state copper company Codelco, is the first one down the shaft. Other rescuers will join him to help prepare 33 trapped miners for their journey to safety after 69 days trapped a half-mile underground.

President Sebastian Pinera wished him good luck and urged him to bring the miners up in good shape.

Then they closed him inside the capsule and Pinera grinned and made the sign of the cross as the capsule disappeared below.

Nervous anticipation grew among the miners' relatives and friends as mining minister Laurence Golborne said rescuers aimed to start hoisting the miners from 2100 GMT, hours ahead of schedule. The men have spent 68 days in the hot, humid bowels of a gold and copper mine in Chile's northern Atacama desert after an August 5 collapse, and now face a harrowingly claustrophobic journey to the surface in specially-made capsules.

Wives, children, parents and friends are waiting on an arid, rocky hillside around 625 metres directly above them at a tent settlement dubbed " Camp Hope."

"Right now I'm calm, though still very anxious. I hope my nerves don't betray me when the rescue starts," said Jessica Salgado, whose husband Alex is trapped below, as the sun rose over the camp. "The first thing I'm going to do is hug him hard, tell him how much I love him, and how I've missed him all this time," she added.

Rescuers on Monday successfully tested a capsule, dubbed "Phoenix" after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes, after they partially lined the narrow escape duct with metal tubes to avoid any last-minute disasters. They originally found the men, miraculously all alive, 17 days after the collapse with a bore hole the width of grapefruit, which then became an umbilical cord used to pass hydration gels, water and food to keep them alive during one of the world's most ambitious rescue operations.

The men have set a world record for the length of time workers have survived underground after a mining accident, and have been doing exercises to keep their weight down for their ascent. It has been an agonizing wait. But once the evacuations start, it will take 48 hours to extract the men.

Four rescuers will be lowered to help the miners prepare to return to the surface. Each man's journey to the surface should take about 12 to 15 minutes.

The miners will have their eyes closed and will immediately be given dark glasses to avoid damaging their eyesight after spending so long in a dimly lit tunnel. President Sebastian Pinera, who ordered a revamp of mine safety regulations in the wake of the accident, plans to visit the mine on Tuesday. reuters

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