After an agonising wait, all of the men formerly trapped in the San Jose mine have been successfully freed.
At around 11:56AM AEDT, 21:56 local, the last of the men, Luis Urzua, a man who has mined for all of his working life, stepped from the lift in which he was winched to freedom.
His journey took just under ten minutes.
TV pictures showed onlookers cheering as he embraced loved ones who have been waiting in 'Camp Hope' with friends and family of the other men. They have been joined over the past few days by politicians from home and abroad, as well as thousands of representatives from the world's media.
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The President took the opportunity to thank him on behalf of the country for his courage, before initiating a rousing rendition of the national anthem. The pair remained talking for some minutes, as Urzua, who took the role of leader, spoke of the group's hope and endurance.
He explained how the group rationed food for days on end, before the President told him to go and see his daughter, as well as visiting the doctors.
Fast, seamless
The operation to free them soared along day and night, with brief breaks to remove the rescue capsule from the shaft, to ensure it was in full working order.
The mining minister Laurence Golborne had earlier said the operation had moved more quickly than anticipated. Once the lift descended to collect the first man, it was to be under 24 hours until all men were on the surface.
When the second man, Ariel Ticona, was safely brought to the surface, hopes for a 100 per cent success rate in rescuing the men grew amongst the reporters on the ground.
All of the men have been taken to a triage centre for health checks, and one of them, the BBC reported, is suffering from pneumonia.
The men have been trapped underneath the Atacama desert in temperatures of around 30c, with humidity of around 85 per cent, since a rockfall on the fifth of August.
For two weeks, they were thought to be dead.
After the last man was freed, the rescuers who remained underground unveiled a banner to the installed TV camera which simply read 'Mision cumplida Chile': Mission accomplished, Chile.
