Miners Gregores Alexander Méndez Torres and Carlos Yépez had on them an oxygen system that only enabled them to continue breathing for two days. Diario Libre interviewed Dominican geologist Osiris de Leon who explained how the miners survived 10 days before being rescued from the underground mine in El Cerro de Maimón.
De León explained the rescuers were able to drill a 34-meter long and 64 millimeters diameter perforation some 36 hours after the collapse.
The cave-in had occurred on Sunday, 31 July 2022 at 1:00 a.m. on level 215 of the mine.
Méndez Torres, a Dominican national, and Yépez, a Colombian, were 95 meters from the impacted area and although they did not suffer any physical damage, the rocks hindered their exit.
Cormidom rescue teams used the pipe to deliver food and oxygen to the workers.
“We decided to drill a hole with one of the drills that the company has, 34 meters long and 64 millimeters in diameter, it is a diameter thicker than a salami, through that hole we introduced air, water and food to ensure that they survived. Then we provided them with masks,” explained the geology expert.
The masks used by the miners controlled their exposure to dust and gases, mainly PM10 and PM2.5 aerosols, which are solid or liquid particles of dust, ash, soot, metal and cement, whose diameter varies between 2.5 and 10 µm. Exposure to this pollutant causes serious health effects, including heart and lung disease.
“We started the drilling at 12 noon on Sunday and concluded it on Monday at the same time,” explained De Leon. He added that in an emergency situation, the first thing that must be provided are the five elements: air, fresh drinking water, food, medicine and psychological care…
This was provided to the workers and is why they were able to survive those ten days without any setbacks, he said.
Once the lives of the workers were ensured inside the mine, the rescue team dug the 73-meter long tunnel in record time.” We made a 73 meter long tunnel in rocks, that is like making a 20 meter high building in rock, it has the width that two vehicles fit and the height of a truck so that the drilling equipment could enter. It is not a small tunnel, it is a tremendous gallery that we built in only ten days, it is a record,” the geologist said, stressing the extraordinary rescue effort.
He indicated that, in a normal situation, what can be achieved per day is only two meters. However, on some days the rescue teams dug 10 meters.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
DR1 News
11 August 2022