Rescued Australian miners accept redundancy packages

Two Australian miners who became millionaires by selling their account of being trapped underground for 14 days have accepted a voluntary payout from the mining company, a union official said today.

Todd Russell and Brant Webb were among 41 workers who accepted redundancy packages from the Beaconsfield Gold Mine in southern Tasmania state, which has been closed since April 25 when a small earthquake caused the collapse that trapped the two men and killed a third.

Webb and Russell spent two weeks in a tiny cage lodged under tons of rock as rescuers inched their way toward them, in a real-life drama that entranced the nation.

The two men sold their story for a reported AUS$2.6m (€1.5m) in a deal with a television network and magazine publisher, and later travelled to the United States to be interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America.