COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) – Chile’s 33 freed miners kept largely silent yesterday about the 69 days they spent trapped deep inside a copper and gold mine, as speculation grew they planned to save their stories for a book.
“We are not going to talk about that,” said 63-year-old Mario Gomez, the oldest of the workers stuck for more than two months in a remote mine in northern Chile, when asked about the hellish ordeal.
“That’s reserved,” was the answer to the same question from Ariel Ticona, 29, as he left the hospital where the miners were cared for after their stunning Wednesday rescue. Most were discharged on Friday.
Three days after being pulled from the bowels of the San Jose mine, they started taking off the Oakley sunglasses provided to protect their eyes after so much time in near darkness.
The miners have become global media stars since their widely watched rescue. Book and movie deals are expected, which could help account for their reluctance to reveal too much about the experience.
Rescued miner Victor Segovia took notes that could become a manuscript about the experience.
“We are going to publish a book,” Ticona said. “We have an outline with 33 chapters based on the log that Victor kept. We are going to see about that later. Victor wrote every day.”
In an interview with local newspaper La Tercera that ran with a photograph of his tattered red notebook, Segovia said: “Writing the book was what saved my life in the mine.”
Parts of the notebook have been taped closed to ensure secrecy, for now. Segovia said he was so nervous at the moment of his rescue that he forgot the notebook down below and had to ask one of his companions to bring it up later.
Publishing experts say a book by the miners would generate a lot of market interest and could be quite profitable.
The formerly-trapped workers have been showered with job offers and gifts, including free vacations to Jamaica (see story on page 5), the Greek isles and Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion, as well as invitations to European soccer matches.
But they are not saying much so far about what it was really like after the Aug. 5 cave-in that left them huddled together in a humid cavern 2,050 feet (625 metres) underground.
