Copiapo, Chile: Trapped nearly half a mile inside the earth and facing perhaps four months before rescue, 33 Chilean miners began getting food, water and oxygen from above ground Monday as rescue teams worked to gauge their state of mind and brace them for the long wait ahead.
Through a newly installed communications system, each of the men spoke and reported feeling hungry but well, except for one with a stomach problem, a Chilean official said. They requested toothbrushes.
It was a positive sign, and Chile's president said the nation was "crying with excitement and joy" after engineers broke through Sunday to the men's refuge.
It had been 17 days since a landslide at the gold and copper mine caused a tunnel to collapse and entombed them more than 670 metres below ground.
Still, doctors and psychological experts were trying to safeguard the very sanity of the miners in the months to come, and said they were implementing a plan that included keeping them informed and busy.
The miners reported that a shift foreman named Luis Urzua had assumed leadership of the trapped men.
"They need to understand what we know up here at the surface, that it will take many weeks for them to reach the light," Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.
Shelter
Dr Sergio Aguila, a physician on the rescue team, said the miners reported during a later conversation that they fed themselves with cans of tuna, milk and biscuits stored in the shelter where they took refuge after a tunnel collapsed August 5.
"They had two little spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk and a biscuit every 48 hours," he said.
He did not say how long the supplies lasted.
Officials released a portion of the recording of the afternoon conversation in which miners are heard singing Chile's national anthem with strong voices.
Engineers worked to reinforce the 15-centimetre-wide bore hole that broke through to the refuge, using a long hose to coat its walls with a metallic gel to decrease the risk of rock falling and blocking the hard-won passage through the unstable mine.
The lubricant makes it easier to pass supplies through in capsules.
The first of the packages which will take about an hour to descend from the surface, held rehydration tablets and a high-energy glucose gel to help the miners begin to recover their digestive systems.
