So how will the Chilean miners survive for three months half a mile underground?Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1305894/So-Chilean-miners-survive-months-half-mile-underground.html#ixzz0xeKoZ5KfToday, they're singing and drinking beer. But the miners trapped half a mile underground until Christmas face a truly harrowing ordeal.
After the sheer, blessed relief of discovering that their menfolk are alive, the people of the Chilean copper town of Copiapo now have to come to terms with almost unimaginable frustration, as engineers begin the painfully slow dig through half a mile of solid rock to get them out.
But their agony will be as nothing compared with the grim ordeal in store for the 33 miners themselves who, since they made contact with the outside world on Sunday, face an extraordinary four months trapped in an emergency shelter the size of a small flat.
'The more confidently rescue workers can convey information that they will be successfully rescued, the better this will be for the miners,' she says.
Certainly spirits at the San Jose Mine seem high. On Monday a walkie-talkie and camera system was lowered through the hole about six inches across dug to the miners' cavern.
At the same time rehydration tablets and glucose were also lowered down, along with medical questionnaires, and a further access shaft is being dug.
The miners spoke by radio to rescue workers yesterday requesting cold beer, peaches and toothbrushes.
Recovery mission: A special drill, the Xtrata 950, will dig a 66 centimeters diameter escape hole for the miners 
Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:01 pm