Re the good news of the rescue of nine miners through a drill hole
in the US.
There has been at least one earlier such rescue, at the Lassing
talc mine in the Austrian Alps, about 200 km south of Vienna. This
occurred in 1998, and was reported in Mining Journal, the various
references being;
July 24, p54; July 31, p78; August 21, p138; September 25, p231
On July 16 an inflow of mud trapped one man, Georg Heinzl, in a
tunnel at a depth of 60 metres. A rescue team of ten men was set
up to approach him from underground, but all ten were killed by
a further inundation at a depth of 120m on July 17.
Georg was brought to surface alive 'in good shape' via a drill hole
on July 26, after being trapped for ten days.
The August 21 MJ item reports that hopes for the ten men had been
given up, while the September 25 item reports that the Austrian Govt
were launching an enquiry into the whole incident -- the mine workings
extended beyond the approved boundary and, in the inundation/cave
in, two houses had disappeared into a surface hole.
So rescue via drill hole has been done before......
Incidentally, searching the MJ CD (mine covers 181-1998) for 'rescue'
I came across the following in an item in the December 6, 1996 issue,
page 459:
'About 10,000 people are killed in Chinese coal mine accidents each
year'.
Tony Brewis
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