Aussie Miners Freed After Two Weeks

This is a pretty amazing story - two Australian gold miners were trapped for two weeks and were freed today and are doing pretty well:

Two Australian gold miners trapped for two weeks 3,000 feet underground walked unaided out of the mine early Tuesday, freed by rescue teams drilling round-the-clock by hand through hard rock.

After initial medical tests underground, Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, strode purposefully from the mine's main lift shaft. They hugged family and friends before clambering into two ambulances, still laughing and joking with friends.

Webb and Russell were buried after a small earthquake April 25 trapped the safety cage they were working in under tons of rock in the Beaconsfield Gold Mine. Miner Larry Knight, 44, was killed. The rescue came hours before Knight's family planned to hold his funeral.

For 300 hours, the two miners huddled in the 4-foot-tall cage, too short to stand up in, until rescuers broke through the last crust of hard rock to reach them. Mine manager Matthew Gill said the men were in good health.

Teams of specialist miners bored through more than 45 feet of rock over the past week with a giant drilling machine to reach the men. Cutting the final sections of the escape tunnel was been slow and difficult, as the men used hand tools to avoid causing a cave-in.

And how did they manage to survive in those conditions for two weeks?

Webb and Russell survived because a huge slab of rock landed on the 16-square-foot cage, forming a roof that kept them from being crushed. For five days they lived on a single cereal bar and water they licked from rocks, until rescue crews with thermal heat sensors detected them April 30.

The rescue team forced a narrow pipe through a hole drilled through the rock and pushed through supplies including water, vitamins and fresh clothing.

Comforts such as iPods, an inflatable mattress, egg and chicken sandwiches and even ice pops followed.

A good job was done by all.