Facts about the Copiapó mining accident
- The miners were seeking for gold, copper and other minerals and then a part of the mountain had broken off that was nearly 45 stories tall!
- The stone that broke off weighed nearly 770,000 tons. Twice as much as the weight of the empire state building!
- The reason why the stone fell is because the mine caused a chain reaction to the mountain above it to collapse a little part of the mountain.
- Nearly 130 people started the journey to get the miners back up to the surface the day after the accident.
- For 17 days, nobody new if they were dead or alive until the thirty - three miners sent up a letter to the top saying that they are still alive.
- A video camera threaded deep underground to capture the first images of the miners underground. This informed the families that they are in healthy and they are in good condition.
- Later on the miners used a modified phone to call and sing Chile's national anthem to hundreds of relatives celebrating from above.
- To get out of the mine, the miners traveled up a narrow, nearly half-mile rescue shaft.
- The final effort to rescue the miners " Bringing them back up to see the world above the mine" took roughly 22 hours.
- The miners were about 1,600 feet below the ground to get rescued.
- The lowest the miners could go was about 2,150 feet below the ground!
- For some odd reason, the miners said that when the worldwide spotlight of the rescue and the trips and offers dropped, the miners said that most of them were unemployed and that many were did not have as much money than before.
- Some miners who were still employed had to go back in the same exact mine that they got trapped in! How scared would you be to go back in a mine that you got trapped in for 69 days to get money to survive?
- A lot of the miners who were unemployed actually quit because they were so scared to go back in the mine they got trapped in.
- the miners had to pay nearly £6.67million in damages from the government and £11.3million from the mine owner San Esteban Company. Later on in 2013 though, a prosecutor explained that the miners didn't have to pay the money to the mine owner. Still, that is £6.67million to pay. I did some calculations and found out that each miner would have to pay £ 202121.212121. ( Sorry that I have the money in £s. I couldn't figure out how much money it is in American money.)
- after getting to the top of the mine successfully, the 33 miners went to Disney World to celebrate.
- Before the escape tunnel went down to get the miners, they believed that it was going to be about 26 inches wide. When you think about it for an adult, that's not a lot of room to move around.