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The miners face another three to four months underground as rescuers drill an opening large enough to get them out. Mr Webb, who was trapped in a steel cage after the Beaconsfield mine rockfall with fellow miner Todd Russell for two weeks in 2006, said it was important for the Chilean miners to have contact with their loved ones. "You have to get some correspondence from the loved ones to keep everything on a high,'' Mr Brant told AAP. "There are so many highs and lows in being trapped - you're alive, that's a high, we can't get you out, that's a low. "The mental rollercoaster they are on is huge and without getting reassurance, without getting words from your loved ones, your mental and physical state goes downhill.''
 * UPDATE 1pm: BEACONSFIELD mine survivor Brant Webb says the 33 miners trapped in the depths of a Chilean mine since August 5 face a big problem in trying to avoid infection and keeping their spirits up.**

The Chilean miners have managed to get a note out through a shaft drilled 700 metres into the earth, telling engineers and family members that they were together and alive inside an emergency shelter. The shaft will be used to send down small capsules containing food, water and oxygen if necessary, and sound and video equipment so the miners can communicate with family and rescuers. Mr Brant said the threat of dysentery was always present and the miners had to deal with sanitary issues. "The biggest problem they have got is infection - if they are drinking dirty water it's only a small amount of time before they get dysentery,'' he said. "That was our main concern - we urinated in our helmets and poured it out the side because we didn't want to get infection. "Todd didn't pass a stool for two weeks, he was getting slowly poisoned. "But once they do have bowel movements, what are they going to do with it - the probability of getting crook just goes up.'' He said when these men are rescued they will be bonded to each other for the rest of their lives. "They will come out very united, they will have really good friendships forever and a day but they are going to be different men,'' he said. "To be trapped is a different world - when I got out of the hole I ran around trying to let all my mates' birds out, rabbits and guinea pigs. 'Don't trap them', I said. "These blokes will go through the same thing where they won't like seeing zoos, trapped animals, cages - you get a different perspective on the world.'' Earlier today, the first message to emerge from the depths of a Chilean mine was a love letter from a man to his wife, saying he could not stop thinking of her and urging her to have faith that he would get out alive. Mario Gomez, 63, told his wife Liliana in the note that he could hear rescuers trying to drill into the emergency shelter where he and 32 others had been trapped since the entrance to the copper and gold mine collapsed on August 5. " Dear Liliana, I'm well, thank God. I hope to get out soon. Have patience and faith. I haven't stopped thinking about all of you for a single moment,'' Gomez wrote. One of the most experienced miners inside the shelter, Gomez said "a little water'' was trickling down into the shelter and that for days the drilling machines could be heard clearly from above. "We're hearing the drilling machine. Let's hope it gets here this time... I'm sure we'll get out of here alive. I hope to talk to you later,'' he added. When rescuers drilling a shaft into the area finally broke through on Sunday, they pulled out Gomez's letter along with another note, wrapped in a plastic bag and bound with rubber bands, said Mining Minister Laurence Golborne. "All 33 of us are well inside the shelter, said the second letter, which was read aloud by President Sebastian Pinera. The news triggered cheers from the crowd gathered outside the mine, as family members broke down in tears and hugged each other. "I knew my husband was strong, Liliana Ramirez told reporters after reading her husband's letter. National Emergency Office regional director Carlos Garcia said the temperature inside the emergency shelter ranged between 32C-36C with very high levels of humidity. He said the trapped miners had some water and lights and that in the next few hours they would get fresh supplies of food and water, which they would have to ration out carefully. Garcia said relatives would be soon allowed to speak with their loved ones, ``to give them hope and strength, through a coaxial cable that will be dropped through the drill bore.'' Earlier, rescue operation chief Andres Sougarret said it would take at least four months of work to drill an opening large enough for the miners to be pulled out. The mine collapse took place at the San Jose gold and copper mine near the city of Copiapo, 800 kilometres north of Santiago. "All 33 of us are well inside the shelter," Mr Pinera said today, waving a message scribbled in red pencil that the trapped miners sent to rescuers on the surface through a shaft drilled 700 metres below the ground. "This came out of the ground. It's a message from our miners telling us they are alive, that they are together," Pinera told reporters outside the mine, 800km north of Santiago.

The miners have been trapped since August 5 in the San Jose gold and copper mine near the northern city of Copiapo.

Until today there had been no word from them, and hopes for their survival were fading.

"I thank the miners for their bravery, for their courage in holding out more than two weeks in the depths of the mountain," Mr Pinera said.

"Now we must keep working. We have to enclose the shaft so we can send them water, food, lighting and communication" equipment.

"But the most important thing is already there: moral support. The miners know we're striving to rescue them," he said.

Despite Mr Pinera's optimistic scenario, Mr Sougarret warned that extracting the trapped miners from their deep hollow will take time and that a more powerful digging machine is needed to drill a shaft to the shelter where the miners are confined.

"A shaft 66 centimetres in diameter (will take) at least 120 days" to reach the miners, the engineer said. "The mental rollercoaster they are on is huge and without getting reassurance, without getting words from your loved ones, your mental and physical state goes downhill.''

The article I have chosen is about the 33 miners who got traped in a 700 metre mine in Chile. Now no one knew that they were down there of course the miners family's knew and told the head of the mining company but there was still no evidence that they were down that mine until the miners got a little note up saying that they were togerther and alive inside an emergency shelter.

The company has got a little tube which is used to send down food and water and if nessecary oxygen. And the tube is also used to bring down video and sound equipment to keep the miners in touch with their family and the outside world (read the letter). It is said that the biggest problem they've got is infection because when they send down the water it can and will get dirt in it and the miners still have to drink it becuase the miners would rather have the chance of getting sick than just dying.(read what the other traped but got free guy said guy said)

It will take another 3 - 4 months to drill a hole big enough to get them all out safely. Some of you might be wondering how the miners go to the bathroom they actually have to pee and poop in their helmet and then tip it out to the side so that was a health issue in itself. Some people in the mining company are looking at the bright side and how they will be best mates for life. The miners apparently have lots of hope that they'll get out alive but they will also have the voice in the back of their head thinking that they'll die.

I think this shows courage because those guys havn't given up and it is amazing even thinking about what they're probably doing to stay alive to me they are showing courage.

This article was posted on the 22 of August 2010 from the Herald Sun.

Questions

Do you think these guys have shown courage? how?

If you were in that situation you couldn't do much different but would you do anything different?

Do you think they will get out faster than everyone says they will? how?

What would you say to your loved ones if you were traped down a mine? 