Miners' families start to file lawsuits

MINERS trapped deep in a Chilean mine have sent video footage showing them in good spirits, as their families filed the first of potentially many lawsuits against the shaft owner.

Excerpts of the 45-minute video showed the men upbeat despite their 21-day ordeal in a hot and dankunderground shelter, where they await a potentially months-long rescue.

“We’ve organised everything really well down here,” said one of the miners, sporting a scraggly beard and pointing to a corner reserved for medical supplies.

“This is where we entertain ourselves, where we have a meeting every day, where we make plans. This is where we pray,” he added in a video aired on Chilean television after it was shown to families of the 33 miners.

About a dozen other miners waved at the mini-camera, which was lowered earlier 2,300 feet below the surface via one of the metal capsules that have been ferrying supplies to them since Sunday.

On Monday, brief, shadowy images of a miner’s face were sent from a rudimentary camera initially lowered to the shelter.

The discovery of the miners still alive three weeks after a cave-in triggered mass celebrations in Chile, where mining is a vital industry.

The country is the world’s top copper producer, with one third of total output, and in their video, the miners appeared eager to claim a position of respect for the thousands of Chileans who toil underground.

“Here, ladies and gentlemen, there are professionals. We have electricians, we have mechanics, there is our leader who is a very good artist, we have special machine operators,” one of the miners said in the video. “These are no longer the miners of 100 or 150 years ago . . . These are miners you can be proud of.”

San Esteban Mining, the owner of the gold and copper mine in northern Chile, was ordered on Thursday by a local judge to freeze $1.8 million in revenue so that it can pay future compensation to 26 of the families of those trapped.

Litigation against the mining company swirled as officials grew concerned about the mental wellbeing of the miners awaiting a months-long rescue.

Experts say the process of digging a rescue shaft will take up to four months to complete.

Some of the men were already exhibiting psychological “problems,” Health Minister Jaime Manalich told CNN.

They were having trouble sleeping and were becoming increasingly anxious and irritable after being cramped in the confined space for so long, he said.

Photo shows relatives of the trapped miners placing flags in the ground close to the disaster site, each flag representing one miner.