Primary 6n Presents

Chilean Mining Disaster A Case Study

P6n have been looking at Victorian coal mines for our topic. Coal mines in the Victorian era were dangerous places to work and often there were terrible accidents such as explosions and cave-ins. Mining disasters are still an issue today in the 21 st Century and there have been two high-profile cases in the news since August.

We did a case study on the Chilean Mining Disaster, an incident which shocked and gripped the attention of the whole world…

Introduction: an overview of the disaster On the 5 th August 2010 the world was shocked because 33 miners became trapped in a Chilean mine following a cave in. They got out on the 13 th October - that’s 69 days without sunlight or fresh air. The mine had already had a disaster so it should have been shut down! By Cameron and Eimantas

The conditions in the mine The miners were 3 miles underground and away from fresh air. They only had 1.2miles of galleries to move around in. It was very dirty and cramped. Ventilation problems led them to move to a tunnel to shelter for the rest of their time stuck down in the mine. By Paula and Matthew

How the miners survived trapped in the mine The miners got their food and drink from the people on the surface sending food down a very long tube. Before they were having food sent down to the mine, the men were living on just two spoon fulls of tuna and a sip of milk a day. They only ate meat and rice because the rescue tube was 66cm in diameter and nothing else could fit down to reach them. By Brendan and Amber

Thoughts and feelings of the miners and their families Videos were sent up to the families from the miners. “Dario knows we’re all up here and now he has to be strong,” said Dario’s mum. Osman Araya sent a message to his wife and daughter saying, “I will fight to the end to be with you.” By Ami and Brandon

Camp Hope The relatives of the miners stayed in their cars nearby and prayed for a miracle. People stuck flags in the ground for each miner at Camp Hope. Camp Hope is going to be turned into a museum. By: Dean and Nicole

The machinery used in the rescue An American man named Jeff Hart drilled the hole that helped get the miners out. The crew used a Schramm T130 drill. Each miner was strapped into a harness 21 inches (53 cm) wide inside a bullet-shaped capsule. The rescue crews planned to raise the miners one by one with the pod. By Kristen and Katie

The Rescue Mission It took 50 minutes for each miner to be rescued, with the rescue operation taking forty-eight hours to complete. Florencio Avalos, aged thirty-one, was the first miner to be rescued. The thirty-three miners were pulled up in a capsule safely to land. By Lauren and Reece

The impact of the disaster on the rest of the world The disaster took over all the newspaper pages and TV programmes. Lots of countries such as the U.K, Brazil and Peru contacted Chile to send their support. People all over the world tuned in to see the rescue mission live on the internet. By: Alex and Johan

What happened when the miners were rescued? The miners sung songs and gave their family members hugs and kisses when they reached the surface. All of the 33 men had to go to hospital. One man had to stay in hospital longer because he was traumatised. By Lisa and Connor

The Chilean miners were very lucky to survive their ordeal. Others have not be so lucky. Just two weeks ago, 29 New Zealand miners lost their lives in a mining disaster.

Thank you for watching our presentation! We hope you enjoyed it and learned something new.