The 33 Under the Desert

On 5 August 2010, deep inside the San José copper and gold mine, near the city of Copiapó in Chile's Atacama Desert, the mountain began to break.

The mine was old. It was a spiral tunnel winding down into the rock. Miners had been complaining about rumbling and cracking for some time. That afternoon, a gigantic block of rock, said to be as big as a large building, broke loose and collapsed into the main tunnel, sealing it completely.

Thirty-three men were trapped below. Most were in a small emergency shelter, or near it, about 700 metres underground.

The shelter

The shelter was a small room cut into the rock, with a supply of emergency food meant to last a handful of men a couple of days. It was hot and humid. The air was full of dust.

The men tried every route upwards. The ventilation shafts had ladders, but the ladders did not reach all the way, and the rocks continued to fall. They were completely cut off.

The shift supervisor, Luis Urzúa, took charge, alongside some of the older and more experienced miners. They decided to ration the food very strictly. According to the accounts the miners later gave, each man got a tiny spoonful of canned tuna, a sip of milk and a biscuit, roughly every forty-eight hours. They drank water from the tanks used for the machines, which was dirty and tasted of oil.

They made rules. Decisions were taken by vote, with each man having a say. They organised work shifts, so that everyone stayed busy. They prayed together. They kept their lamps going, and drove trucks to recharge batteries for light.

Above ground

On the surface, families gathered outside the mine gates. They set up tents in the desert, in a camp they named Campamento Esperanza: Camp Hope.

The Chilean government took over the rescue. Engineers began drilling small exploratory holes, about the width of a grapefruit, down into the rock, hoping to hit the shelter. It was like trying to hit a target the size of a room, from more than half a kilometre above, through solid rock. Many drills missed.

Days passed. Then a week. Then two weeks. Many people began to fear the men must be dead.

Day 17

On 22 August, a drill finally broke through into a tunnel near the shelter.

Down below, the miners heard it coming. When the drill bit appeared, they banged on it, painted it, and tied notes to it.

When the drill was pulled back up to the surface, the rescuers found, taped to the bit, a small piece of paper. Written on it in red were the words:

"Estamos bien en el refugio los 33."

"We are fine in the shelter, the 33."

The note was held up to the cameras, and all of Chile celebrated. People poured into the streets. The families at Camp Hope wept and cheered.

Sixty-nine days

Finding the men was one thing. Getting them out was another.

Through the narrow borehole, rescuers sent down food, water, medicine, letters from families and even a small camera. They sent tubes of glucose and, later, proper meals. The men were weak and had lost a great deal of weight, but they were alive.

Three different drilling plans were started at once, each by a different team, in a race to make a hole wide enough for a man to pass through. NASA experts were consulted on how to keep the men healthy, physically and mentally, in such a confined space for so long. The Chilean navy designed a special rescue capsule, painted in the colours of the Chilean flag and named Fénix.

The fastest drill, known as Plan B, broke through on 9 October.

Coming up

On the night of 12 October 2010, the rescue began. It was broadcast live around the world, and watched by an estimated one billion people.

One by one, each miner climbed into the narrow capsule, which was barely wider than his shoulders. It was winched up through the rock, a journey of more than ten minutes. At the top, each man stepped out into the arms of his family, wearing dark glasses to protect his eyes from the light.

The last miner to come up, on 13 October, was the shift supervisor, Luis Urzúa.

All thirty-three men had survived, after sixty-nine days underground. It was the longest time anyone had ever been trapped underground and survived.

Want to read more?

Héctor Tobar was chosen by the miners to tell their story, and his book Deep Down Dark is based on long interviews with all thirty-three men. It describes not just the heroism, but the fear, the arguments and the faith that kept them going.