Utah miners 'may never be found'

Relatives of six miners trapped in a cave-in accused US officials of giving up on the rescue effort and leaving the men for dead.

Federal officials conceded the miners, who have been missing for two weeks, may never be found

“We feel that they’ve given up and that they are just waiting for the six miners to expire,” said Sonny Olsen, a spokesman for the families, reading from a prepared statement as about 70 relatives of the trapped miners stood behind him.

Air readings from a fourth hole drilled more than 1,500 feet (457 metres) into the Utah mountainside found insufficient oxygen to support life, and the latest efforts to contact the men were again met by silence.

“It’s likely these miners may not be found,” said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine.

The news marked a shift in tone in mine officials’ assessments of the chances the men would be rescued, hopes they had maintained even after three rescuers were killed and six more were hurt on Thursday in another “bump” inside the mountain.

The families of the missing miners demanded that rescuers immediately begin drilling a 30-inch (76-centimetre) hole into which a rescue capsule could be lowered.

“We are here at the mercies of the officials in charge and their so-called experts. Precious time is being squandered here, and we do not have time to spare,” Olsen said.

There has been little evidence that the six miners survived the initial August 6 collapse.

Workers have gained limited access to the mine through four boreholes into which video cameras and microphones were lowered. Rescuers banged on a drill bit and set off explosives on Saturday, hoping to elicit a response, but heard none.

Video images taken from the fourth hole showed signs of collapse in the cavern but no indication the miners were there, said Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration. Three previous efforts to reach the men via drilling have proved futile.

Moore expressed doubt that the tunnelling effort would resume.

“Thursday night we had an awful tragedy here,” he said. “I can’t say with certainty we will be able to continue the underground efforts. The risk is too great. We just simply cannot take the unacceptable risk and put additional lives in harm’s way.”

Moore said oxygen readings and video images taken from the fourth hole had changed his mind about the miners’ probable fate. Oxygen levels in the hole are just 11 to 12 percent, incompatible with life. Normal oxygen levels are 21%.

Workers started yesterday on a fifth borehole into the mountain, more than 2,000 feet (600 metres) down, in another effort to find the men, but Moore said he expected to find insufficient air in that hole as well.

“Our thoughts and our prayers and our deepest sympathies go out to the families – for all those families involved in the two tragedies here,” he said.

Moore met with family members yesterday morning for what he called a “very difficult, very emotional” discussion. He said their response then was one of frustration, not anger.

“They’re responding as I’m sure any of us would respond. They want to see their loved ones again. I want to be able to provide that but I can’t give any guarantees we’re going to be able to,” he said.

Experts from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, West Virginia University and private engineering firms met in the hope that they could develop a safer way of tunnelling towards the trapped miners.

The challenge is daunting. No support system currently in existence can withstand the explosive force of a mountain bump because those forces are nearly impossible to predict, Stickler said.

Once one coal pillar collapses, the weight it had carried gets transferred to adjacent coal pillars, setting off a chain reaction.

“The mountain continues to be active, continues to move,” Stickler said. “As the weight causes pillar failures in one area of the mine, then that weight is shifted to adjacent pillars and that process seems to be migrating out from the original area where the bump activity started.”