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Photographer: Aliosha Marquez A/AP/Press Association Images
Newborn Esperanza Ticona is watched by her cousin in hospital some 70km from the mine.
Trapped Miners
First baby born to trapped Chilean miner
Some good news for miners trapped underground for 40 days.
ONE OF THE TRAPPED CHILEAN miners has become a father, after his wife gave birth to a baby girl yesterday evening.
Ariel Ticona and his wife Elizabeth Segovia had originally planned to call the child Carolina, but each decided independently to name her Esperanza instead – the Spanish for Hope.
A camp above the mine where families have been keeping vigil since the mine collapsed early last month is called Camp Hope. Ticona had asked his wife via video from the mine to stay home and take it easy ahead of the birth. Upon hearing of the baby’s arrival, he said “give her a long-distance kiss!”
This ITN report says the baby’s birth has provided some comfort to the newborn’s grandmother, as she awaits her son’s release:
New opportunities?
Job offers have been streaming in for the 33 men trapped in the mine since 5 August.
Over 20 companies operating in Chile have made more than 1,000 job offers to the men, including positions as mechanics, electricians, and escape-tunnel drillers, according to CBS.
The vice-president of a Canadian gold mining company, Kinross, said that there is no time limit on when the men can accept their ‘relocation offers’.
Which is just as well, because the miners will have to be pulled one by one from the mine once a wide enough shaft has been drilled down to them. The last man out is expected to be rescued in early November.
