Istvan Gonczi left Romania forced by the failure of the mining industry. Together with his wif, he found work in Chile. He was responsible with the geological measuresments in the first weeks of the operation to save the miners captive for 69 days underground. In an interview, he talks about how events happened those days.

In January 2002, we received an offer to work as a geologist in a copper mine in Atacama desert and I moved with my family in Chile, Gonczi revealed. My daughter Noemi is an English - Spanish translator in Chile and my son is an IT student, the man said.

His role was to measure deviation for a several days together with a team of people. He says that the most difficult taks was to locate where the miners were. He told the interviewer that he did not get to talk to any of the miners but, from televisions the whole country was partying, people were screaming of joy, cars were honking and churches rang their bells.