It was a positive sign, and Chile’s president said the nation was “crying with excitement and joy” after engineers broke through Sunday to the men’s refuge. It had been 17 days since a landslide at the gold and copper mine caused a tunnel to collapse and entombed them more than 2,200 feet below ground.
Still, doctors and psychological experts were trying to safeguard the very sanity of the miners in the months to come, and said they were implementing a plan that included keeping them informed and busy. The miners reported that a shift foreman named Luis Urzua had assumed leadership of the trapped men. “They need to understand what we know up here at the surface, that it will take many weeks for them to reach the light,” Health Minister Jaime Manalich explained.
Dr. Sergio Aguila, a physician on the rescue team, said the miners reported during a later conversation that they fed themselves with cans of tuna, milk and biscuits stored in the shelter where they took refuge after a tunnel collapsed Aug. 5. “They had two little spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk and a biscuit every 48 hours,” he said. He did not say how long the supplies lasted. Officials released a portion of the recording of the afternoon conversation in which miners are heard singing Chile’s national anthem with strong voices.
