The Chilean Mine Rescue: A West Virginian’s View From Behind The Gates

The idea that it would take four months to extract the 33 miners trapped 2,100 feet below the earth’s surface was unfathomable to me. I tried to relax and enjoy my vacation with my family, but my thoughts were focused on a mine site in South America where both the men underground and their families on the surface had no choice but to wait 16 weeks to be reunited.

Early the next morning, I began making phone calls to colleagues from my involvement with the Underground Ventilation Committee of the Society of Mining Engineers, particularly Brian Prosser and Keith Wallace with Mine Ventilation Services. By the afternoon, Prosser had put me in contact with Jose Donoso of Global SKM, who in turn put me in contact with Raul Dagnino of Terra Services. Dagnino was the lead of Terracem JV, a Chilean and South African joint venture that had mobilized the Strata 900 Raise Drill. This raise drill later became known as Plan A. Wallace, who was at a mine site in Indonesia at the time, put me in touch with Codelco officials. I found myself exchanging e-mails with these mining professionals, finding the language barrier non-existent as we discussed things like proposed techniques, geology, mine layout, equipment and tooling.

While I had never been to Chile, I had spent my career drilling ventilation shafts mainly for coal mines in Appalachia and other U.S. coalfields, and I felt a bond with the trapped miners. I had founded North American Drillers in 1984, a company that started by drilling 24-inch holes for mine dewatering. Over the years, we grew into drilling up to 18-foot diameter shafts. We became Shaft Drillers International after acquiring Zeni Drilling in 2001, and I sold my interest in the companies in 2006. Growing restless from my absence in the mining industry, I used the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, in which 29 West Virginia miners were killed, as inspiration to found a new company. Drill Leader, LLC was formed in Morgantown with a foundation of 30 years of knowledge in specialty drilling. Having drilled several ventilation shafts at Upper Big Branch and its predecessor, Montcoal No. 7, over the years to prevent these types of horrific explosions from occurring, and with my background in using shafts for best ventilation practices, I felt my experience could continue to benefit the industry.

Initially, e-mails I exchanged with Donoso and Dagnino regarding rescue plans, which were referred to as Plan A, proved to be fruitful. Plan A consisted of drilling a 15-inch directional pilot hole on fluid and then downreaming to 28 inches with a raisebore cutterhead, compliments of Dagnino’s Strata 900 Raise Drill mobilized unit. Discussions were very open and frank. However, after suggesting alternative methods involving down the hole (DTH) hammers, I was told that the DTH hammers were considered unproven technology and needed further planning. During these discussions, I gained some knowledge of the local geology and mine conditions on-site, which was in the Atacama Desert, 40 miles from the nearest town of Copiapo. By Wednesday, August 25th, I had learned that Brandon Fisher, president of Center Rock Inc., a Pennsylvania-based drilling technology company, was simultaneously working on a plan to drill a hole more quickly. I had helped Fisher start his company in Morgantown in 1998 and was familiar with the DTH technologies he had developed. Like myself, he refused to believe that it would really take four months to drill a hole 2,100 feet into the earth to rescue the trapped miners.

Our Plan B was one of three rescue attempts approved by the Chilean Government. It required DTH technology—a heavy steel piston with a carbide and diamond impregnated bit that vibrates up to 1,500 times a minute and turns as it pounds. The technology was better suited than conventional drill bits to bore through the extremely hard, abrasive rock at the San Jose mine and to do so starting at an 11.5-degree angle.

I had known all along that I would end up in Chile, working to rescue those miners. After speaking and meeting with Fisher and Center Rock several times over the next week, I ended up in South America as a member of their team. Fisher, Richard Soppe and I flew to Chile together, and we were met by several drillers from Geotec who flew in from Afghanistan the following Wednesday.

We arrived at the mine site in Chile on September 4th, and timely planning and good fortune enabled us to begin drilling with DTH technology on September 5th. Center Rock had fabricated the drilling equipment required for Plan B in days instead of the weeks usually required due to the specialized parts that are made per individual project requirements.

A Chilean drill team had already drilled 5.5-inch holes into the ground to enable air and supplies to reach the trapped miners. The Plan B team had to ream, or enlarge, a similar hole twice—first to 12 inches with a DTH hammer to achieve stability and allow cuttings to fall into the mine opening, and then to 28 inches using an LP drill with four hammers in a barrel reamer assembly. Despite setbacks, things came together overall during the operation: 1,000 additional feet of 7-inch drillpipe were manufactured and delivered to the site in a week; the LP drills were shipped directly to the site by UPS for free and the Chilean Air Force flew in parts just in time to allow for a coring tool to be used.

Our team hit a snag at a depth of about 800 feet when its 12-inch DTH hammer struck a support bolt from a nearby mine ramp, causing a bit to shear off. It took a week to fish the pieces of broken bit out of the hole with various fishing tools before the team could resume drilling.

No one had ever tried an LP drill like ours at the angle we encountered for the distance we had to go. The rock in the top of the hole was fractured and unstable. It was really tricky to keep the reamer inside the 12-inch hole, and gravity was working against us the entire way.

After working out the kinks, the team reached peak boring speeds of 20 feet per hour reaming the 12-inch hole and just over six feet per hour widening the hole to 28 inches. While the drillers lost and wore out numerous drill bits, they were still able to reach the underground mine workshop at 8:05 a.m. on October 9th.

On October 12th, the first miner emerged safely in a capsule that the Chilean Government dubbed “The Phoenix.” A little more than a day later—and 70 days after they were imprisoned in the mine—all 33 miners had been raised to the earth’s surface, where they were embraced by family members and greeted by Chile’s President, Sebastian Pinera.

The rescue of the Chilean miners was the most daunting in history. Never before had men survived after being trapped for so long under the earth’s surface. For members of the Plan B team, though, the success had been a sure-thing from the get-go. None of the members involved ever doubted the ultimate success of the Plan B rescue mission. I personally felt that we were all there for a reason, and that God was watching over us the entire time.

We didn’t have much contact with the families of the miners while in Chile. One day, however, CNN asked us to take part in a media event. We got corralled for an interview outside the gate where the family members were waiting. People hugged us. I didn’t know their names, although I recognized one woman from when her husband had come out of the rescue capsule. I’ll never forget the feeling of extreme gratitude.

Being involved in the rescue was truly a life-changing experience—one where I personally witnessed as the whole world came together for the good of mankind. It was an honor and privilege to be able to use the knowledge gained through serving the coal industry in West Virginia to play a role in the effort.

To gain on the lessons learned in Chile and prepare us here at home, a tax deductible Mine Rescue Drilling Fund has been established at Your Community Foundation in Morgantown. For more information, go to www.fundyourpassion.org/minerescue or call (304) 296-3433.