Peru's president asked a group of miners trapped in a mine in southern Peru to stay patient and try to be in good spirits as workers feverishly tried to rescue them Wednesday morning.

Talking through a hose placed in the collapsed cavern, President Ollanta Humala tried to assure the nine trapped men that they could be free in several hours, Peru's state-run Andina news agency reported.

The miners have been stuck since Thursday in the wildcat Cabeza de Negro mine in southern Peru.

A cave-in over the weekend slowed progress.