Chile's 33 trapped miners and their relatives were counting down the hours yesterday after rescuers finished reinforcing an escape shaft to avoid a last minute disaster as their two month ordeal draws to an end.
Engineers completed lining part of the narrow, nearly 2,050 foot-long (625-meter) shaft with metal tubes on Monday morning, the government said. They will now do test runs with special escape capsules, and the government aims to start hoisting the men to freedom one by one on Wednesday.
They installed the tubes to head off the risk of rocks from the side of the drill shaft falling down onto the capsules dubbed "Phoenix" after the mythical bird, and blocking them from reaching the surface.
"I'm so tired. It's been far too many days doing nothing, just sitting waiting," said Alicia Campos, whose son Daniel Herrera is among the trapped miners, as she lined up for a fish sandwich at the tent settlement near the mine entrance dubbed "Camp Hope."
She wants her son to take up another profession.
Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said on Sunday rescuers could start lifting the miners to the surface on Tuesday evening if all went well, as one of the world's most complex rescue operations and most stunning survival stories nears its climax.
President Sebastian Pinera, who has ordered a revamp of mine safety regulations in the wake of the accident, has said he plans to visit the mine on Tuesday. One of the 33 miners is a Bolivian national, and Bolivia's President Evo Morales has vowed to visit the mine for his rescue.
Rescue officials said they would push ahead boring a separate shaft with a rig usually used to drill for oil as a back-up plan, just in case there are any complications. They have halted a third drill.
In a land still recovering from a devastating February earthquake, celebrations broke out across Chile on Saturday when the drill broke through 65 days after the August 5 collapse at the small gold and copper mine in the far northern Atacama desert.
PRAYERS, VIGILS, WAITING
After weeks of prayers, vigils and agonizing waiting, anxiety is giving way to joy as wives, parents and children count down to reunions with their loved ones.
The men, who have set a world record for the length of time workers have survived underground after a mining accident, have been doing exercises to keep their weight down for their ascent.