Rescuers close in on trapped Utah miners

[Scorpio]

Rescuers close in on trapped Utah miners

By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago

HUNTINGTON, Utah - Drill rigs perched on a steep mountain chewed through sandstone to within a few hundred feet early Thursday of six coal miners caught in a collapse 1,500 feet underground, one of the mine's co-owners said.

The machines were meant to open a slender lifeline if the men were still alive, but crews could not be certain they had cut the 2 1/2-inch-diameter hole on target.

The hole reached 1,300 feet deep, said Bob Murray, chairman of mine co-owner Murray Energy Corp. That left as little as 200 feet before rescuers could reach the chamber where the men were believed to be trapped and finally learn if the miners survived the cave-in early Monday.

Another hole, slightly less than 9 inches wide, was being drilled and officials hoped it could break through by Friday, Murray said.

The smaller hole would allow a communications line to be lowered to the entombed miners, while the larger shaft would permit food and water to be lowered into the depths.

"We will put cameras down. We will provide communication. We will provide food. We could keep them alive indefinitely," he said.

The mining company predicted both holes could be finished in 48 hours or less, although there was potential for equipment breakdowns and dangerous ground shifts.

"Obviously we're dealing with the unknown," said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy.

The drilling crews made significant progress overnight. Efforts to clear rubble blocking a tunnel to the miners also made steady progress, Murray said in a pre-dawn update.

The miners were believed to be about 3 1/2 miles from the entrance to the Crandall Canyon mine 140 miles south of Salt Lake City.

"With a little help from God and a little luck, they'll get out," said mine safety manager Bodee Allred.

The miners' families have been receiving private briefings on the rescue effort from Murray, who said he took two relatives of the trapped miners underground Wednesday to show them the rescue efforts.

Murray's company has 19 mines in five states that vary widely in the number of fines, citations and injuries, according to an Associated Press review of federal Mine Safety and Health Administration records.

At Crandall Canyon mine, the safety record was remarkably good, said R. Larry Grayson, a professor of mining engineering at Penn State University.

On Wednesday, Murray led a truckload of journalists to just outside the mine's entrance in a narrow canyon surrounded by the national forest.

Two parallel shafts lead deep into the mine, linked by smaller tunnels about every 130 feet. The walls of both passageways appeared to have imploded, creating a debris pile of dirt, coal and splintered timbers that nearly fills the 8 foot by 14 foot mine shafts.

On the mountain above the mine, the drilling effort illustrated the dangers associated with the type of deep mining practiced in the West, where the terrain is rougher than it is in Appalachia and the coal mines are dug far, far deeper.

In recent days, the rescuers had to bulldoze 8,000 feet of road across the wilderness to bring in one rig and use a helicopter to bring in the other. One rig had to be balanced on the 23-degree mountainside.

The circumstances made the rescue operation "extremely hard, one of the toughest we've had to deal with," said Allyn Davis, who oversees Western mine safety operations for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Ten miles away in the small town of Huntington, several hundred people filled bleachers at the rodeo grounds Wednesday night for a candlelight vigil.

At one point during a meeting at a school earlier Wednesday with the miners' families, Murray stepped outside, paced around and went back in.

Maria Buenrostro, the sister of trapped miner Manuel Sanchez, said Murray got angry with relatives' questions and walked out. She also said there was no interpreter for three Spanish-speaking families.

"We want the truth, that's all we want," said Buenrostro, 40. "If there's nothing that they can do about it, you know, just tell us so we know what to expect when they bring them out."

___

Associated Press writers Pauline Arrillaga and Paul Foy in Huntington, Utah, Brock Vergakis in Salt Lake City and Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va., contributed to this report.

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[Scorpio]

Analysis suggests no quake in Utah mine collapse

By Dan Whitcomb Tue Aug 7, 5:27 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Seismic activity detected in Utah at the same time a mine collapsed there, trapping six men deep underground, was probably caused by the cave-in itself and not an earthquake, U.S. geologists said on Tuesday.

But Harley Benz, scientist in charge of the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, said a final conclusion was still several days away.

The mine's owner has insisted that an earthquake was responsible for the collapse and lashed out at experts and members of the media who have said otherwise.

"To date our analysis of the seismic data really suggests that what we observed was a mine collapse," Benz told Reuters in a telephone interview. "The simplest explanation, based on the seismic observations, was a mine collapse."

The earthquake center detected a tremor with a 3.9 magnitude at 2:48 a.m. MDT (0848 GMT) Monday, centered about 1 mile below the surface, a shallow depth for an earthquake.

Benz said the reasons to suspect that the Crandall Canyon Mine's cave-in was responsible for the seismic activity included the epicenter's proximity to the mine and shallow depth and the nature of the signal itself.

"The character of the seismic signal is not really consistent with what we see in a naturally occurring event (like an earthquake)," Benz told Reuters.

Benz said further modeling would be required because of the complex nature of the signals and that, along with collecting additional data, would take at least several more days and possibly weeks.

The question of whether an earthquake triggered the collapse has become a key issue as rescuers race to reach the six men, who have not been heard from since the mine collapsed early on Monday morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070807/us_nm/mine_utah_collapse_dc;_ylt=AlGpaIt1VIZF41h7y94TbsM EtbAF

[Scorpio]

Utah miners still trapped, drills inch toward them

By James Nelson Wed Aug 8, 6:33 PM ET

HUNTINGTON, Utah (Reuters) - Six miners remained trapped deep underground on Wednesday, more than two days after a Utah mine collapsed, as special drills inched slowly toward the chamber where the men were thought to be.

Officials said it would take two days for the drills to bore through some 1,500 feet of rock, sandstone and coal to where they believe the six are stranded -- dead or alive -- in the mine.

At that point, rescuers should be able to determine if the miners survived and provide them air, water and communication, but mine co-owner Robert Murray said it would take at least a week before the men could be brought out.

The miners have not been heard from since the mine, located in the Manti-La Sal National Forest in remote central Utah, caved in early on Monday. Officials say they could potentially survive for weeks in an underground chamber if they were not killed by the initial collapse.

"The concussion from the original seismic activity may have instantly killed them, and that is in the hands of the Lord," Murray said. "But we will get to them and have gotten to them as rapidly as we can from the surface."

On Tuesday, rescuers were forced to abandon what was thought the fastest way to reach the miners, using an old mine shaft, after falling rock made it too dangerous. That left crews to basically start over.

TOWN RALLIES AROUND MINERS

One of the drills being used to make an air and water hole was airlifted by helicopter onto a steep mountainside, directly above the chamber where the miners are believed trapped.

"The 2.5 inch hole from the drilling rigs brought in by helicopter as of 7 a.m. this morning was down 450 feet (137 metres) on the 1,500-foot path to where we know the miners are trapped. In two days, if they continue this pace, that hole will be down to where we want it to be," Murray said.

Work also began on Wednesday on an 8 5/8-inch (22-cm) hole that could reach the miners' location in two days, Murray said.

Families of the miners have avoided the media, but a photo of one of the miners, Manuel Sanchez, was broadcast on CNN. The small town of Huntington, population about 2,000, has rallied around the trapped men and planned candlelight vigils for Wednesday night.

The incident brought back memories of the 1984 Wilberg Mine disaster, which killed 27 miners in the worst coal-mine fire in Utah history.

The mine is located on a high desert plateau some 140 miles

south of Salt Lake City, in what is known as Utah's "castle country" because of the towering red and brown rock formations that dot the bleak landscape.

A bitter dispute erupted over the cause of the accident, with Murray insisting an earthquake was responsible after geologists said seismic activity detected at the same time was probably caused by the cave-in.

Murray told reporters he would go into the mine on Wednesday once it was determined to be safe. He said he would be accompanied by the son of one trapped miner and the brother of another, both miners.

"That seismic activity lasted all night," he said. "I'm told in the early wee hours this morning ... it stopped."

Questions have also been raised as to whether the cave-in came during a dangerous retreat-mining, where pillars of coal are used to hold up the mine roof, then removed.

Murray has said that no retreat mining was under way at the time of the collapse.

Concerns about mine safety in the United States rose last year when 12 miners were killed in an explosion at International Coal Group's Sago mine in West Virginia.

In response, Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law last year.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Bill Trott and Jackie Frank in Washington)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070808/ts_nm/mine_utah_dc