Giant drill works to free miners

Chile's president says his government has done everything within its power to rescue 33 miners trapped underground for 47 days and counting, but will not venture a guess as to when they will be pulled out.

Sebastian Piera spoke yesterday as a huge oil industry drill began carving a third escape tunnel that may provide the way to extricate the men through a half-mile of solid rock.

"Today for the first time we have three machines working simultaneously. We don't know when they will reach them. But we know one thing - with the help of God, they will reach them," Mr Piera declared after touring the drilling operation and meeting with the miners' families.

"I can assure you we have done everything possible. We have done our best," he said.

The latest drill, a mammoth 150ft-tall structure, can pound through 60ft to 90ft of rock a day. And while the other machines must first bore narrower holes and gradually expand their diameter, the Rig 24 can carve a 28in-wide shaft - just wide enough to pull a man through - in a single pass.