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HUNTINGTON, Utah - Six miners remain trapped deep underground, more than two days after a Utah mine collapsed, as special drills inch slowly toward the chamber where the men are thought to be.
Officials said it would take two days for the drills to bore through some 457m 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 got 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.
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 6cm hole from the drilling rigs brought in by helicopter as of 7am this morning was down 137m on the 1500-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 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 2000, 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 225km 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.
- REUTERS
