The Mine Drama in Chile

A heart-wrenching experience Håkan would have rather been spared

Published 2011-04-04 22:47:54

The mine drama in Chile ended happily. After spending a month at a depth of approximately 700 metres, the 33 miners were saved after an unparallelled rescue effort.

Among those who followed the drama with their own eyes was Bergteamet’s Håkan Johansson, who had to leave his job in Kiruna in a hurry and leave for Chile in order to provide assistance as an expert. Håkan Johansson is an experienced mining expert. His professional career in raiseboring stretches back decades in time.

– I started at Skanska in 1975 and came along when Bergteamet bought its raiseboring operations in 2005, Håkan says over a crystal-clear telephone line from his flat some twenty or thirty kilometres from the San José mine, where he is now supposed to make sure that Bergteamet’s equipment is packed for subsequent transportation to new assignments.

Many years abroad

Håkan is a Värmlander with a home address in the Torsby Municipality but his know-how and experience as a mining expert has found application
in many places, in particular, in jobs outside the borders of Sweden.

– Out of all the years I have been working in this industry, I have spent a total of 14 years abroad. However, I enjoy my job and I like the mobility it entails, explains Håkan, who has been working as a production manager for Bergteamet at the LKAB mine in Kiruna for two and a half years.

– By the way, I have spent some time in Kiruna before, including a couple of years at the end of the 1970s and now, after the hurried departure for Chile and the rescue work at the San José mine, I am going back to my job as a production manager. Håkan Johansson then proceeds to tell us about the enormous operation for the rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean miners. An operation which ended happily. In addition to its competent and skilful employees, Bergteamet also had a drilling rig with all of its associated equipment on site in order to function as backup for the Strata 950 drilling rig which was used in one of the three alternative rescue plans. Although Bergteamet’s drilling rig was not put to use, the company contributed with drilling pipes when the Strata 950 was drawing closer, metre by metre, to the miners who were trapped at a depth of almost 700 metres. Erik Selin, Division Manager ofRaiseboring in Bergteamet, explains:

– The drilling rig that did the job had only 200 metres of pipes and we provided additional 350 metres that we had on site in Chile after the completion of another project. Nevertheless, there were 150 metres of pipes that were still missing and we picked these from Kiruna and transported them to Santiago and then on to the San José mine.

Valuable insights

Selin thinks that the mine drama, which was covered by a gigantic mass media crowd from all the corners ofthe Earth, has provided valuable insights that can be useful in the future.

– Fortunately, the whole operation had a happy ending. What we can now put to use is the planning and thinking during the different stages of the rescue work. For Bergteamet as an organisation, this event will naturally contribute to the strengthening of our competence when it comes to handling of difficult situations. It will make us ready to step in and lend a hand if an accident occurs again. And an accident could actually affect our own staff, as well...

What happens now?

The mine drama in the middle of the Chilean desert was disturbing for Håkan Johansson, an event he would rather not witness again for the rest of his professional life.
What happens in the immediate future?
– We are now about to pack our equipment and transport it to a nearby port. A significant part ofthe equipment, which is going to be distributed among twelve containers weighing 30 tonnes each, will then
be sent to a project that Bergteamet is due to carry out in Bhutan. And I am going back to my old job as a production