(Corrects spelling of worker&${esc.hash}39;s name to Hart from Heart)
* Rescue shaft reaches miners after weeks of drilling
* U.S. drill operator says was mission of his career
By Cesar Illiano
COPIAPO, Chile, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Chileans have found a new hero in American Jeff Hart, the drill operator who has spent weeks drilling down to where 33 miners have been trapped deep underground for more than two months.
Rescuers finished drilling an escape shaft on Saturday for the men, jumping for joy as the drill pushed through the last inches (cm) of a nearly 2,050 foot-long (625-metre) shaft through which the miners will be hoisted to safety. [ID:nN09240143]
"There&${esc.hash}39;s an emotion there that I can&${esc.hash}39;t describe. It&${esc.hash}39;s an amazing thing," said Hart, 40, who government officials praised for his central role in the rescue.
"We finally got there, we fought all this time. We have an avenue now that we can actually rescue these miners ... There&${esc.hash}39;s nothing more important that I will ever do," Hart told Reuters in an interview at the mine.
Relatives and friends of the miners, who hugged and kissed as news spread that the shaft had been finished, rushed to get their picture taken with Hart, who has worked as a drill operator for the Chilean-based Geotec Boyles Bros company for 24 years.
Geotec was hired to drill one of three rescue holes. Its effort was the first to reach the miners.
It will still take days to hoist the miners to the surface one at a time in special capsules just wider than a man&${esc.hash}39;s shoulders, in one of the most complex rescue attempts in mining history.
Hart was helping the U.S. armed forces drill for water in Afghanistan when he was called to help free the trapped Chilean miners stuck far beneath the desert since the mine cave-in 65 days ago.
"Why I got the call I have no idea. We came, we did the job and here we are ... There are other great drilling companies up there, we just had the most luck," he said while signing autographs for his new legion of fans.
Hart, a father of two from Denver, Colorado, said the miners would have heard the noise of the drill reaching down to them because rescuers could hear the noise on the other end of the phone line used to contact them.
"They definitely heard the machine," he said.
As soon as they realized they had achieved their objective, another member of the rescue team appeared with a bottle of champagne, which Hart sprayed around in celebratory style: "I&${esc.hash}39;ve been drilling for 33 days, so it&${esc.hash}39;s a very lucky day." (Writing by Antonio de la Jara and Helen Popper; Editing by Eric Beech)
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