Chile's Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said on Friday that the drill T-130, also known as Plan B, could reach its goal of 630 meters deep on Friday, where the 33 miners have been trapped since Aug. 5 in a cooper mine in the north of the country.

A picture of one of the 33 miners trapped underground is seen in San Jose mine, 800 km north of the Chilean capital of Santiago on Oct. 8, 2010. [Jorge Villegas/Xinhua]

Golborne said "the goal could be advanced from Saturday to Friday," as the most recent report issued on Thursday early morning said that the Plan B had surpassed the 570 meters deep and there was only 60 meters more to reach the miners' shelter.

However, reaching the shelter, does not mean the miners will be immediately rescued, as once the drill reaches its goal, the technicians have to analyze the state of the stones and decide if the drilled well should be reinforced or not.

In case the well need to be reinforced the rescue could take some days more, after the drill reaches the shelter.

"The rescue process will take many days. It will take eight days more with the reinforcement and two or three days without the reinforcement," Golborne said.

Meanwhile, the rescue team chief Andre Sougarret said that "we are analyzing a technical revision to determine the well's quality and the final decision will be done once we reach the goal."