The engineer leading Chilean rescue efforts says his team has successfully tested a rescue capsule nearly all the way down to where 33 miners are trapped.
Andres Sougarett says the empty capsule descended 610m – just 14m short of the chamber where the miners have been trapped since an August 5 collapse.
He said all would be in place at midnight on Tuesday to begin the rescue.
Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters on Monday that the capsule performed very well in the hole – that it didn’t even loosen any dust. He did not say why the capsule did not go to the bottom.
The steel capsule was lowered by winch into the hole after its top 90m were encased in tubing.
– SAPA