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Rescuers mull quickest route to trapped Chile miners

COPIAPO, Chile (AFP) – The 33 miners trapped deep underground in Chile may be rescued as early as November, new documents revealed, as relatives held a tearful vigil to mark a month since the workers were entombed.

The quickest route is the rescue workers' "Plan C" that involves a football pitch-sized oil drilling platform, expected to begin work by September 18 -- Chile's Independence Day.

It reduces the rescue time to two months at best, having to only drill some 597 meters (1,958 feet) to reach the trapped workers.

The process, in which miners can escape one-by-one in a small cage winched up to ground level, through a hole that is still yet to be drilled, should be ready "in early November in the best case scenario or early December if there are problems," said the document provided to rescue workers Sunday and seen by AFP.

Meanwhile Sunday in an emotional ceremony full of song, music and tears, relatives of the 33 miners marked the month since a cave-in at the northern Chilean mine entombed their loved ones deep underground.

Flags for the 32 Chileans and one Bolivian were placed in the ground, and at 1:45 pm (1745 GMT), the estimated time when the San Jose mine collapsed on August 5, the crowd sounded flutes and horns and chanted upbeat songs.

Chile's Mines Minister Laurence Golborne presided over the ceremony, reading aloud the names of the workers. Relatives and friends shouted "Viva!" as each name was called.

In the weeks since the cave-in, the miners have become national heroes as their improbable tale of survival has captivated the world.

But relatives said the miners, trapped 700 meters (2,300 feet) underground, were becoming dejected and demoralized as the realization sinks in that freedom is still several weeks away at least.

"It's painful, because time is passing by," said Elizabeth Segovia, whose brother Dario is one of the workers trapped in the mine.

She spoke of the families' pain in knowing that 30 days after the accident, rescuers were not likely to reach the men before Christmas, and that most of their ordeal still lies ahead of them.

"Hopefully everything will turn out all right so that they can be rescued."

Relatives spoke to the miners on Saturday using a special video link, for the first time able not only to hear their voices but also to see their faces.

But far from providing relief, some relatives said those conversations only made them more fretful about the emotional and mental state of their loved ones.

"Yesterday, they were angry, because fatigue was beginning to set in. It has already been quite a few days," Alejandro Zamora said of his trapped brother, Victor.

"My brother was not able to speak, he was so angry," Zamora told AFP. "He was not in a very good mood."

While the quickest plan had yet to start work, "Plan B" began its installation phase Sunday but still has to reach down 620 meters (2,034 feet) to get to the miners. It would be a shorter time than the three-to-four months that the original "Plan A" is set to take.

This effort, the only one of the three options already in the drilling phase, requires burrowing the full 700 meters (2,300 feet) into the mine, and later having to widen that hole to accommodate a rescue.

So far on Sunday, only 131 feet (40 meters) of the "Plan A" rescue shaft had been drilled, however.

At the beginning of last month, the miners had been given up for lost, but against all odds managed to survive deep down in the mine in Chile's remote Atacama desert for longer than anyone thought possible.

On August 22 a drill probe finally reached the underground shelter where they had managed to take refuge, surviving by rationing cans of tuna for 17 long days.

The men attached a note to it, saying: "All 33 of us are well inside the shelter."

Jubilation followed and relatives set up camp outside the mine and began what promises to be a long vigil.

The ambitious rescue, code-named "Operation San Lorenzo" after a martyred Christian saint, has received help from the US space agency NASA, with its experience in keeping astronauts healthy and sane during long periods in small spaceships.