Thursday, September 16, 2010

A thousand job offers flood in for 33 trapped Chilean miners

* ives

It is the least they deserve - a new job with decent conditions and the option of not working underground.

That is what has been offered to the 33 Chilean men who have now spent more than 40 days trapped in a copper mine, 2,300ft below the surface.

It was the latest piece of good news for the miners, after yesterday's one man's wife yesterday gave birth to a baby girl named Esperanza, the Spanish word for hope.

Dozens of companies have this week made more than 1,000 employment offers to the trapped miners and their 317 sidelined colleagues.

The jobs include being a bulldozer driver, mechanic, electrician, and, quite appropriately, a risk reduction specialist and escape tunnel driller.



* Positions include bulldozer driver, mechanic... and escape tunnel driller
* Latest good news for 33 men follows birth of baby named 'Hope'
* Film called The 33 begins production with cameras following relatives


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Poor safety record: Drilling continues at the mine near Copiapo, northern Chile, where the 33 men are trapped. The mine has struggled to maintain modern safety standards and its workers have been offered new jobs
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Enclosed: The claustrophobic escape pod currently being built by the Chilean Navy to bring the 33 trapped miners to the surface



Even if they choose to go back to mining, the work won't necessarily be underground and it will almost certainly be with a company with a better safety record than their struggling current employer.The firm has spear-headed a rescue effort at the San Jose pit near Copiapo, northern Chile, involving the drilling of three different tunnels.

One of the tunnels has not progressed for days after a drill bit snapped deep below the surface. It took six days to remove the shattered metal pieces using magnets.

The San Esteban mining company, which owns the mine, has pursued bankruptcy protection since the collapse and claimed it can't afford to pay the trapped miners, even though they'll have to work their way out by clearing rubble around the clock below the escape tunnels.

The San Jose miners have been offered 1,188 jobs, many of them posted on a government labour ministry web site.

Mining industry companies have interviewed some 200 of the miners who are not trapped at a hotel in the regional capital of Copiapo, and say they have no trouble waiting for the trapped miners to be rescued before they interview them as well.

'The 33 won't be without a job,' vowed Sara Morales, a deputy human resources director for Terra Services, a Chilean drilling company.

She said she had received resumes from 80 miners and will offer 20 of them jobs.

There will be no deadline for the trapped miners to take advantage of this 'relocation program,' said Jose Tomas Letelier, a vice-president at Canadian gold mining company Kinross.

None of the trapped miners should have to venture back into marginal mines like San Jose that struggle to meet Chile's modern safety standards.

Many of these job offers come from some of the world's most advanced mining companies - major international players making huge investments in Chile.

The companies are prepared to have the miners work as truck or bulldozer drivers, heavy equipment operators, electricians, mechanics, and supervisors in various jobs up on the surface. Kinross alone is offering 46 positions, including risk reduction specialist.

'As the name suggests, it's to prevent risks in mining, which is a very risky activity ... it's a very important role,' Letelier said.

Even without the government-organised job offers, the miners shouldn't lack for work in the industry. Chile's mining sector is booming, with $50 billion in new investment expected in the next five years, making skilled mining workers increasingly hard to find.

Miner Ariel Ticona was celebrating yesterday when he was told his wife Elizabeth Segovia had given birth to their first child.

Esperanza Ticona was born weighing nearly 7lbs and measuring almost 19ins long.

The news of the birth will add further drama to a planned film about the miners which already has a title, The 33, a running time - one hour 33 minutes - and a planned release date in 2012.

Director Rodrigo Ortuzar, who has cameras at the mine filming relatives, said: 'We're filming at the camp as a way of observing what goes on there so we can recreate it later.'

Ticona and his wife had planned to name the child Carolina but each decided to change the name to Esperanza - Spanish for Hope - when the miners were found alive 17 days after the main shaft of the San Jose copper and gold mine collapsed on August 5.

Many of the miners' families have held vigil at the mine since then, sleeping in tents in the cold Atacama desert nights.

But Ticona didn't want that for his wife. In a recorded video chat made possible thanks to a fiber-optic cable that rescuers dropped through a narrow bore hole, Ticona urged a relative to tell his wife to stay home and take it easy before the birth.

'Tell her to change the name of our daughter... and give her a long-distance kiss!' Ticona said as the other miners shouted: 'We're going to name her Hope!'

Segovia told Chile's Canal 13 network that she had exactly the same thought about her name.

'He thought of it there and I thought of it here in the house.

'She was going to be named Carolina Elizabeth, but now her name will be Esperanza Elizabeth.'

'I'm very nervous,' Segovia said as she entered the Copiapo Clinic, Copiapo, some 70km from the San Jose mine, northern Chile.

It comes as an artist's impression has been released of the capsule which will be used to pull the miners to safety.

The men will be drawn 2,300ft to the surface through a rescue tunnel when it is completed, protected by the 'rescue pod'.

Currently being built by the Chilean Navy, it will contain systems for communication and ventilation.

It will also include an escape hatch to counter any problems while it ascends.
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Effort: Rescuers with the 'Plan B' drill which broke, leaving shattered metal in the shaft deep below the surface

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New father: Ariel Ticona is one of 33 miners who have been trapped underground for 40 days
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Help me: A trapped miner makes a victory gesture to a fibre optic cable in the sheltered area where the men are trapped

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Esperanza is watched by her cousin Vinka Montalvan Ticona at the Copiapo Clinic, Copiapo
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Bundle of joy: A mid-wife holds Esperanza Ticona at the Copiapo Clinic, Copiapo, 70km from the San Jose mine
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Hope: Elizabeth Segovia gave birth to Esperanza Ticona yesterday while the baby's father remained trapped







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