Freed Chilean miners honored by President Pinera at his palace

Freed Chilean miners honored by President Pinera at his palace

2010-10-26 08:08:46 GMT+7 (ICT)

SANTIAGO, CHILE (BNO NEWS) -- The 33 freed Chilean miners on Monday were honored and feted by President Sebastian Pinera at his palace in Santiago, the La Nacion newspaper reported.

The miners were trapped at a copper-gold mine in San Jose for 69 days while about 700 meters (0.4 mile) underground. They received medals at a ceremony celebrated at La Moneda Palace and hundreds of residents greeted the miners, hailed as heroes, outside the building as they left the ceremony.

At the end of the official ceremony, the 33 miners encountered the "Fenix 2," the capsule used for their rescue. The capsule is being shown on Constitution Plaza in front of La Moneda palace. Some of the rescued miners took photos of the capsule.

"Thanks to this machine that was invented and the effort of all of Chile, we were able to come out of the mine," said Claudio Yanez, one of the miners, after seeing Fenix 2. "We are very happy of seeing all these marvelous people."

After the official ceremony, the miners got onto a bus and were transported to a local soccer stadium where they engaged into a soccer match against government officials, including Pinera. This marked the last official celebration for the 33 miners.

The crisis involving the miners began on August 5 when a part of the San Jose copper-gold mine in northern Chile collapsed, leaving the 33 miners trapped 700 meters (2,300 feet) underground. More than two weeks later, relatives and rescue workers were shocked but relieved to find that the miners had survived and were in a good condition.

Over the next two months, rescue workers drilled several holes to eventually lower a capsule down to evacuate the miners one by one. It was a process that was initially expected to take until Christmas, if not longer, but was already completed on October 13 after 22 hours of efforts using the Fenix 2 capsule.

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