They're nearly too them from all reports.
www.news.com.au report...
THE trapped Beaconsfield miners have survived the most perilous phase of their rescue ordeal after dozens of small explosives were detonated to clear a path to their cage. Worried mine management was yesterday forced to detonate explosives after finding dense rock was proving a major hurdle for rescuers. But the use of Victorian explosives specialists has injected fresh hope that Todd Russell, 35, and Brant Webb, 37, could soon be freed.
Miners had last night dug their way to the footwall, which is the final hard-rock barrier between the freedom tunnel being built and the cavity where the men are being held.
The rescue operation hit a major hurdle when mining teams struck quartz sandstone, some of the toughest rock known to man.
It forced mine operators to bring out low-level explosives, which were inserted in 52 small holes bored through hard rock.
The explosions enabled miners, operating with hand tools, to make quicker progress in the final thrust to the men. Beaconsfield Gold Mine manager Matthew Gill conceded yesterday that some had been disappointed with the progress.
"These are incredibly difficult conditions," Mr Gill said.
"Miners report they're dealing with some of the hardest rock they've ever worked with, up to five times harder than concrete, and there's a limited space to operate in."
The failure to free the men by yesterday is believed to have taken a heavy toll on some relatives, who had been anticipating a Saturday night rendezvous with the men.
Rescuers appeared to be less than 2m from the men.
Australian Workers Union secretary Bill Shorten said the rescue team was preparing to negotiate a layer of rubble at the base of the cavity where Mr Russell and Mr Webb were stuck after the Anzac Day quake.
"This may dislodge the rocks around it and trigger another rock fall," Mr Shorten said.
Beaconsfield Gold asked three Stawell Gold Mine explosive specialists for help after establishing contact with the pair on April 30.
Rescuers yesterday packed bore holes with low-impact explosives to blast through the 3m of hard rock separating the brave duo from freedom.
Early in the push, rescuers abandoned jackhammers because the quartz sandstone was simply too tough.
Instead, they drilled 52 holes 1.2m deep in the rock and packed them with an explosive called penetrating cone fracture, which is triggered by an electrical fuse.
This "shot blasting" aimed to extend the tunnel about 2m horizontally and 1.5m vertically.
The miners said not even a strike with a crowbar could mark the sandstone they ran into.
The pair have been trapped underground since Anzac Day when the mine, about 40km northwest of Launceston, caved in after a tremor measuring 2.1 on the Richter scale.
They survived five days without food and water before rescuers found them and began the long, difficult task of recovery, drilling a 16m tunnel towards them.
Their colleague Larry Knight, 44, was killed.
Tasmanian Deputy Premier Bryan Green said the Victorian miners had been testing blasting techniques on rock samples from the mine.
Mr Green said Mr Russell and Mr Webb would give feedback to rescuers about blast vibrations.
"This is by far the safest option," he said.
Stawell Gold Mines manager Mark Mitchell said that the men had 30 years' mining experience between them.
"The guys down there have got a lot of experience in underground mining," Mr Mitchell said.
"There's no doubt they know what they're doing."
At least two were miners and the other had a role in mining operations.
"We are very pleased, as an organisation, to be able to support them," Mr Mitchell said.
The Stawell miners arrived in Beaconsfield last Monday, he said.
Mr Green believed the blasting mine rescue was a world first.
"This is a complicated, intricate process that has been undertaken nowhere else in the world," he said.
"The two people who have been most patient in this are Todd and Brant."
Mr Green said the rescuers were working in difficult conditions.
"This is a very confined space these fellows are working in; very hard, confined conditions," he said.
