Communication strategies following the Chilean copper mine collapse

Chilean Mining

RE: Correspondence to Families of Trapped Miners

(To be hand-delivered via print letter from company personnel)

It is with great concern but also with considerable hope that I bring you news today regarding your family members and loved ones. Earlier today, there was a roof collapse in the Compania Minera San Esteban Primera's San Jose copper mine shaft, an estimated 350 meters below the surface. The collapse resulted in the complete blocking off of the mine shaft, making it immediately impenetrable for either rescuers to enter or for miners to exit. There are an estimated 33 miners who were known to be in the mine shaft at the time of the collapse and who are therefore believed to be presently trapped in the mine. We believe that a member of your family is among the missing.

While we provide this information with heaviness in our hearts and prayers in our minds, a rescue mission of unprecedented scale has already begun. The Chilean government has assumed oversight for the process and is seeking assistance from global experts on underground rescue and geology. However, this rescue mission is a complicated one, requiring incredibly delicate and precise strategy. The risks of further collapse, of explosion or of broken equipment all loom heavily as workers have already begun their attempts at entry.

At present, we have not yet established a line of communication with the miners that we believe to be trapped in the mine. We will not be able to do so until we are able to penetrate the ventilation shaft to pass through the proper equipment for establishing contact. Until this juncture, we must rely heavily on the power of hope in anticipation of reaching our loved ones.

We can, however, provide some information that we hope will be of comfort to you in this difficult and uncertain time. We can inform you that all such mine shafts are equipped by regulation with an emergency chamber. This chamber is intended to serve as a stable recess within the mine in the event that a collapse or explosion such as today's has occurred. The chamber is designed to shield our miners from harm and to provide a place of refuge in the even that a rescue such as the present one is called for. This emergency chamber is equipped with reserve food supplies, water supplies and first-aid materials. With these facilities and provisions in place, we have cause for optimism that our friends, family and loved ones, while trapped and no doubt frightened, are likely still alive.

Time is still of the essence, of course. We are working with all expediency and care to ensure that the rescue mission is efficient and well-coordinated. Our first concern is the survival of our extended family. Therefore, we anticipate that when contact is ultimately achieved, we will be able to provide family members with the opportunity to speak to loves ones and to send provisions down to them.

And in this time, we also recognize that while our loved ones fight for survival against harrowing conditions more than half a mile below the surface, you will need to find strength and support in others. We ask you to reach out to others in the Compania Minera family, to come together in this shared time of distress, and to find the shoulder of your neighbor for comfort. Sure as the miners below will need their strength to survive these conditions, they will need your strength as a beacon on the surface.

Your optimism and hope will be a powerful force in helping to support each other, to sustain this massive rescue effort and to ultimately bring our boys back up to the surface. There is no way to no how long it will be before we can reunite all the members of our family, but we can assure you that we will be taking every conceivable step to ensure that this occurs, and quite soon. Our thoughts and prayers our with you and your loved ones tonight.

RE: Correspondence to Employees of Compania Minera San Esteban Primera

(To be distributed both via email and print memorandum in the workplace)

As most of you will have already heard by now, our company is facing a crisis of very serious proportions. Earlier today, a collapse in our San Jose copper mining facilities cause a roof to cave in, isolated 33 men an estimated 350 meters below the surface. This occurred in the same San Jose facility where a 2007 explosion resulted in the deaths of several miners. At present, we have no way of stating for certain the conditions of the men below. We have not been able to establish contact with the mining crew and therefore have begun our rescue effort without knowledge of casualties or survivors in the shaft below.

The San Jose facility was properly equipped with an emergency bunker with all provisions currently up-to-inspection. Therefore, we have cause to believe that the miners can have survived the initial collapse and, further, should have the means to maintain survivability for such time as is needed to ultimately establish contact with and access to them. We remain genuinely optimistic and hopeful that all of the trapped miners have survived, that we will be able to access them and that a full rescue will ultimately be made.

Through this duration, our company will be enduring a decidedly difficult time, both in terms of the emotional strain placed on our personnel and in terms of the heightened scrutiny brought to bear by the international spotlight currently being shone upon us. With respect to the latter, we please ask that company personnel use the utmost of discretion and restraint in conducting yourselves with members of the press. We consider it critical that only positive attention and supportive sentiment be expressed through these outlets at a time when so many families are trying to stay hopeful in the face of this great crisis.