Johannesburg - The South African construction company Murray & Roberts will take part in the rescue of 33 trapped miners in Chile, it said on Wednesday.
The miners have been trapped 688m underground in the San Jose Mine, near Copiapo in the north of Chile, since August 5.
Two companies majority-owned by Murray & Roberts, Terracem and Cementation Sudamerica, had been selected to take part in the rescue operation, it said.
Rescuing the miners would be a challenging process, said Murray & Roberts Cementation managing director Henry Laas.
"The mine is old and there is concern of further collapses... The rescue methodology therefore has to be carefully designed and implemented."
The miners were in contact with a group of medical specialists and were receiving water, food and medicine through a communications drill-hole.
"Terracem company will be working for a period of three months to create the access hole for rescue purposes and optimistic that the rescue operation will be completed safely in the next 120 days," Laas said. - Sapa