Two miners trapped underground for ten days in the Dominican Republic were able to return to the surface on Tuesday after a rescue operation that fascinated the country, announced their company.
“The rescue took place at 11:16 a.m. (local time, 1516 GMT) after opening access through the new diversion tunnel called rescue route B, one of two routes that had been created since the start of the rescue plan“, said in a press release the Dominican Mining Corporation (Cormidom), which operates a Canadian concession. Gregores Mendez, a Dominican, and Carlos Yepez Ospina, a Colombian, had been cut off from all contact with the surface on July 31 after a landslide at this mine located in Cerro de Maimon, about 80 km north of Santo Domingo. More than 70 experts and around 40 technicians from all over the country took part in the rescue. A Canadian military plane had brought 26 tonnes of state-of-the-art machinery and tools for rescue operations on Sunday.
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“Good conditions” underground
President Luis Abinader posted a video in which he greets the two minors, who appear smiling and in good spirits. “The whole country was watching you, very happyhe told them. The press did not have access to the rescue area. Luis Abinader had already visited the site on Thursday and spoke to the two buried minors by radio. In the video, Carlos Yepez Ospina assured that the two men had benefited “good conditions” underground : “ventilation, water, food, everything.» «We slept comfortably too, it made the stay less difficult“, even though “the first days were complicated“.
Cormidom has one of the main concessions in the country, covering 3,400 hectares, according to its website, which does not provide production data. Its president Paul Marinko assures in a press release that the company “meets international standards for security and emergency response“. In Mexico, rescue operations are underway to try to rescue ten miners trapped underground since Wednesday when their coal mine was flooded and partly collapsed. No contact has since been established with them.