SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – Chile’s president said Sunday that his government has done everything within its power to rescue 33 miners trapped underground for 47 days and counting, but wouldn’t venture a guess as to when they’ll be pulled out.

Sebastian Pinera spoke as an oil industry drill began carving a third escape tunnel that could potentially provide the first way to extricate the men through a half-mile of solid rock.

“Today for the first time we have three machines working simultaneously. We don’t know when they will reach them. But we know one thing — with the help of God, they will reach them,” Pinera said after touring the drilling operation and meeting with the miners’ families.

The latest drill, a mammoth 150-foot-tall structure, can pound through 60 to 90 feet of rock a day toward a point nearly 2,000 feet below the surface, not far from the refuge where the men have been staying.