Successful rescue operation for two miners trapped underground for ten days. In the Dominican Republic, Gregores Mendez, a Dominican, and Carlos Yepez Ospina, a Colombian, were able to return to the surface Tuesday, August 9th. The two men were cut off from all contact with the surface on July 31 after a landslide at a mine in Cerro de Maimon, some 80 km north of Santo Domingo.
“The rescue occurred at 11:16 a.m. (local time) after the opening of access through the new diversion tunnel called Rescue Route B, one of two routes that had been created since the rescue plan began,” according to a statement from the Dominican Mining Corporation ( Cormidom) operating a Canadian concession.
In total, more than 70 experts and around 40 technicians from across the country were involved in the rescue. A Canadian military plane had brought 26 tons of state-of-the-art machinery and tools for rescue operations on Sunday.
President Luis Abinader released a video greeting the two miners, who appear smiling and in good spirits. “The whole country has been watching you very happily,” he told them.
In the video, Carlos Yepez Ospina, one of the two miners, assured that the two men had benefited from “good conditions” underground, with “ventilation”, “water”, “food”, “everything”. “We also slept well, which made the stay less difficult,” he said, even if “the first few days were complicated”. The press did not have access to the rescue area.