Utah mine collapses; 6 reported trapped

August 7th, 2007

Salt Lake City, Utah - Six miners are trapped in a central Utah coal mine, less than 20 miles from the epicenter of a minor earthquake Monday that could have been the cause.

Rescue crews in central Utah will begin drilling through a mountain early Tuesday to reach trapped miners, the mine's operator said.

The effort could take days, but Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, the parent company of the mine's operator, said rescue crews would not rest until they reach the six trapped men.

"We will be on our feet until we get these men out, one way or another," Murray said. If the men survived the collapse, "We just may get them out in two or three days unharmed."

The men were caught in a cave-in at the Crandall Canyon mine before dawn Monday.

Rescuers had hoped to reach the miners by breaking through the seals of an old mine shaft, which could have potentially put them within 100 feet of the miners.

"I'm disappointed to report that our efforts have not been fruitful in this approach to get to the men," Murray said. Crews were driven out by hazardous conditions underground.v There is still hope that crews might be able to breach a second entrance, but if those efforts fail, they will have to rely on the slower, more arduous drilling process, Murray said.

Murray said workers were "using every means known to mankind" to reach them.

A drilling rig was brought in by helicopter to bore through the mountain.

"We're sparing no expense to bring every mining machine that we have in Utah in here," he said.

So far, rescue workers have been unable to establish communication with the miners, who are presumed to be about 1,700 feet away.

More than 200 people are working to retrieve the men. Four rescue teams are working at the site, and another 12 have been lined up to work in shifts over the next two days, Murray said.

"Right now I can't say if it's looking any better," miner Leland Lobato had told The Associated Press at the end of his eight-hour shift. "They're doing what they can to keep everybody as fresh as possible so nobody gets tired."

The miners are thought to have been working about four miles from the mine's entrance at the time of the incident, said an official with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Murray said he was confident of the miners' location, but there is still no word on their condition.

"They can be in a chamber in there that's 1,000 feet long, or they could be dead," he said.

It could take 48 hours to reach the miners, Murray said, but if they are still alive "there's water and air for far beyond that."

Every miner carries a tank with about an hour's worth of oxygen, officials from Murray Energy said. There are also caches throughout the mine with additional oxygen, they said.

It is unclear whether the collapse was caused by a small earthquake or whether the collapse itself was strong enough to register on seismographs.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a quake of 3.9 magnitude jolted the region shortly before 3 a.m. (5 a.m. ET), with an epicenter about 16 miles west of Huntington, Utah, close to the mine in Emery County.

Seismographs recorded movement near the area that was "consistent with a mine-type collapse," Walter Arabasz, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, told the Deseret Morning News.

"Now we have to go back and look at more careful analyses to be able to defend with more certainty whether the originating event was an earthquake or whether it was a seismic event caused in a mine environment," he told the Salt Lake City, Utah, newspaper.

A "rock burst" measuring on a seismograph would not be "unheard of" in the region, Davitt McAteer, former head of MSHA said.

"It has happened in the past," he said.

The mine -- owned by Genwal Resources Inc. -- reported a cave-in to the Emery County Sheriff's Department about an hour after the seismograph reading was noted.

Inspectors have cited Genwal for 30 violations in 2007, MSHA records show. Recommended fines in the 10 cases where penalties have been leveled so far range from $60 to $524.

According to AP, the mine uses a technique called "retreat mining."

With this method, miners leave pillars of coal to support the mine's roof while pulling out most of the coal. When only the pillars are left in an area, they are collapsed intentionally to retrieve the last of the coal, AP said.

Mine rescue teams from the Rocky Mountain Power Co. are on standby if they are needed, spokesman Steve Eskelsen said. In addition, the power company has offered to loan out its heavy equipment, he said.

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