2010 Copiapó mining accident 2010 Copiapó mining accident The 2010 Copiapó mining accident, also known then as the "Chilean mining accident", began on Thursday, 5 August 2010 with a cave-in at the San José copper–gold mine, located in the Atacama Desert north of the regional capital of Copiapó, in northern Chile. Thirty-three men, trapped underground and from the mine's entrance via spiraling underground ramps, were rescued after 69 days. After the state-owned mining company, Codelco, took over rescue efforts from the mine's owners, exploratory boreholes were drilled, and seventeen days after the accident a note was found taped to a drill bit pulled back
Beaconsfield Mine collapse men sang "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers (the only song they both knew) in order to keep up their spirits, as they waited for successive blasts to occur in the tunnel. At about 5.45PM on 30 April two rescuers, Pat Ball the underground manager and Steve Saltmarsh, mine foreman, breached safety protocols by entering the 925 level, to the rockfall and yelled out. Webb and Russell began yelling "We're in here!" and this was how the rescuers found out they were alive. Later one rescuer found a direct route to the trapped miners, across the rubble in the side tunnel,