Threefold drilling effort to reach trapped Chile miners

COPIAPO, Chile — Three drilling machines will try to dig out 33 miners trapped for a month underground, the engineer in charge of the rescue operation said Friday, as work at the main shaft resumed."We've got three alternative plans: plan A is up and running, plan B... should be starting on Sunday, and plan C is in the works so that by September 18 a third option is up and running," said Andres Sougarret."For now, we've got those three alternatives, but we're still dealing with a three to four month timeframe for the rescue," he added.Engineers Friday resumed drilling with the Australian-made Strata 950 excavator after a brief halt Thursday."The machine began working again at midnight. The delay had been programmed to allow cementing operations," a rescue worker who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.Drilling had been halted Thursday afternoon once the crews reached 40 meters (130 feet) deep to cement the walls of the bore hole "to ensure no water can seep in through any cracks," the National Emergencies Office said.The battle to reach the men trapped 700 meters (2,300 feet) underground since an August 5 collapse is a twofold challenge: drilling through the rock and managing the psychological effects of prolonged isolation deep underground.A second drill that will widen a supply chute to the miners and could aid their rescue, arrived Friday dismantled atop five trucks at the site of the copper and gold mine in Chile's Atacama desert, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Santiago."I feel so much emotion and I'm impatient to begin work as soon as possible," Juan Castillo Olea, who drove one of the trucks carrying the machine parts, told AFP.The T-130 excavator is faster than the Strata 950 and will be deployed initially to enlarge the supply chute to a diameter of 30 centimeters (12 inches).The process will allow teams of nutritionists, doctors and the miners' relatives to send larger objects down to the 33 men, according to Sougarret.Engineers are also examining whether the supply chute could be enlarg

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