Rescuers inch closer to trapped Australian miners

A worker prepares a metal tube which will be used in the rescue effort. Ian Waldie / Getty Images

CANBERRA - Rescuers today inched closer to two Australian miners trapped a kilometre underground for 11 days, but said moves to free the men had run into a new delay caused by vibrations from the giant drilling machine.

Rescuers had hoped to drill through 14 metres of hard rock by early this morning to reach the two men with a one-metre wide hole, big enough for them to crawl through to freedom.

But after completing more than two-thirds of the escape tunnel, the rescuers were forced to stop drilling because the huge underground boring machine was causing instability in the surrounding rocks, delaying the rescue bid.

"Our miners are going to go and get them out, there's no question in my mind now. They're determined to get them out," Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten told reporters.

Miners are expected to dig through the last metres to the trapped men with picks and hand drills to avoid triggering another rock fall from the vibrations of the drilling machine.

The two gold miners were trapped in a small wire cage after a cave-in on April 25 when an earthquake sent tonnes of rock crashing down. A third miner was killed in the cave-in at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine on the southern island of Tasmania.

Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, were found alive last Sunday after being entombed for five days. A huge slab of rock landed on the cage they were working in, protecting them from other falling rocks.

Food and water were delivered to the men through a 10-cm plastic pipe, along with clothes, a digital camera, and two iPod players, but the men have had to wait a further six days as rescuers took extra care not to trigger another cave-in.

The accident has gripped Australia, with the media covering every detail of the rescue and media organisations scrambling to secure rights to tell the story.

Russell and Webb are reported to be hoping to walk out of their tomb when the rescue tunnel is complete.

- REUTERS