A video camera lowered into a Utah mine shaft where six miners are trapped showed "survivable space," an official said Saturday, but searchers haven't heard any signals from the missing men.
A camera dropped into a second hole showed an intact ceiling over less than one metre of rubble and water, said Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Robert Murray, founder of Cleveland-based Murray Energy Corp., is interviewed at the entrance to the Crandall Canyon mine Saturday.
(Douglas C. Pizac/Associated Press)
"We do have a 5.5-foot (1.7-metre) void. We have not lost the space where the miners could be located," he said.
The miners are trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine, which is built into a mountain in the rugged Manti-La Sal National Forest about 225 kilometres south of Salt Lake City. The miners are about six kilometres from the mine's entrance.
After the new hole was drilled, rescuers banged on the drill to signal the miners, but received no response.
"It was heartbreaking," said mine geologist Mike Glasson. "We did not lose confidence in what we are doing up there. Not one bit."
They encountered trouble because 37 litres of groundwater a minute were flowing down the hole into the vast space below, Stickler said. It affected one of the camera's lenses, compromising performance.
Nonetheless, he said, "We found survivable space."
The camera was withdrawn so a steel casing could be inserted in the well to protect the camera from the water.
'Not going to give up hope'
Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp., co-owner of the mine, has insisted the mine collapse was caused by an earthquake. However, University of Utah seismologists said Wednesday they believe it was the cave-in, and not an earthquake, that registered on a seismograph early Monday.
A microphone lowered into an earlier smaller hole yielded no sounds of life; an air sample detected little oxygen.
Murray acknowledged the rescue effort has been slow.
"The rescue effort itself, I am very disappointed at our pace," Murray said, while maintaining "no mistakes had been made."
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