BEACONSFIELD, Australia (AP) – Two Australian miners have been rescued from a gold mine after two weeks trapped 3,000 feet underground and are safe and well, the mine manager said early Tuesday.

Matthew Gill, manager of the Beaconsfield Gold Mine, said Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34 _ who were lodged in a steel cage beneath tons of fallen rocks after an earthquake _ were removed from an escape tunnel drilled by rescue crews.

Teams of specialist miners bored through more than 45 feet of rock over the past week with a giant drilling machine to reach the men. Cutting the final sections of the escape tunnel was been slow and difficult, as the men used hand tools to avoid causing a cave-in.

The rescue ends a drama that riveted the nation, with TV crews camped in the mine parking lot, broadcasting information from the scene, and residents of the close-knit community waiting anxiously at the mine gates to welcome the two men, now considered heroes.

Seventeen men were working the night shift April 25 when the magnitude 2.1 quake sent tremors through the century-old mine. Fourteen men made it safely to the surface. But Webb, Russell and Larry Knight, 44, had been working deep in the belly of the mine repairing a tunnel.

Rescuers found Knight’s body was found two days later. Webb and Russell survived because they had been working inside a steel safety cage. A huge slab of rock landed on the 16-square-foot cage, forming a roof that kept them from being crushed.

For five days they existed on a single cereal bar and water they licked from the rocks around them.

Rescuers discovered they were alive April 30 when a thermal imaging camera picked up their body heat. The following day, the team forced a narrow pipe through a hole drilled through the rock and pushed through supplies including water, vitamins and fresh clothing.

Comforts such as iPods, an inflatable mattress, egg and chicken sandwiches and even ice pops followed.

Late Monday, mining officials said rescuers had completed the horizontal section of the tunnel and had drilled narrow probes up through a rock crust to confirm they were directly below the cavity where Webb and Russell survived for more than 300 hours.

They next had to tunnel vertically thought about 3 feet of hard rock and debris _ the most delicate and frustrating part of the operation.

Drilling through 12 inches of hard rock at the end took longer than expected, as miners worked one at a time on their backs in the tunnel, wielding hand-held pneumatic drills, diamond-tipped chain saws and jackhammers as heavy as 88 pounds.

The rest of the crust was compacted debris, easier to cut through.

Throughout the rescue, the good spirits of the miners, both married with three children, amazed those struggling to reach them.

One man asked for a newspaper so he could start scanning the classifieds for another job. Another said that once freed, he wants the ambulance to stop at McDonald’s on the way to the hospital.

But the mood in the town had become increasingly somber as the rescue dragged on.

Officials had hoped the men would be freed early Saturday, and hundreds of residents gathered at the mine gates to welcome the men. Celebrations turned to frustration as the hours passed.

Little had been seen of the miners’ families since the initial news of their survival. TV networks and newspapers were rumored to have paid substantial sums for exclusive rights to interview the men and their relatives once they were rescued.

Knight’s family planned to hold his funeral Tuesday in the nearby town of Launceston. They had delayed the service, hoping the trapped miners would be able to attend.