Seismic activity has hindered rescue efforts at a Utah mine where six miners have been trapped for nine days but not hope the men will eventually be found.
Crews advanced about 27 metres since Tuesday towards the underground space where the miners may be trapped.
An unidentified worker reinforces the walls as rescue workers attempt to reach six trapped miners in the Crandall Canyon Mine.
(AP Photo/Utah America Energy Inc.)
Their efforts were stalled, however, after minor seismic activity damaged one of the mining machines. Richard Stickler, assistant labour secretary, said efforts to lower a microphone into a third borehole Wednesday also failed, leaving rescuers without any sign of life from the men underground.
Despite the setbacks, rescue crews and officials maintained a message of hope during a daily press briefing.
"I am still very optimistic that we will find these miners alive. There is real reason to believe that from what we've found," said Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp., which co-owns the mine
"The roof is intact. There's been no falls from the seismic activity. There's plenty of water and depending on the air in the specific areas of the mine and where these miners might have gone, there's plenty of void space to hold the air to keep them alive for weeks, not just the eight days that we've been at it."
The miners have been trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine, built into a mountain in the Mati-La Sal National Forest about 225 kilometres south of Salt Lake City, since a collapse on Aug. 6.
Video footage from Saturday showed a tool bag, a chain and other equipment normally found at the work site but no sign of the miners. A microphone lowered into an earlier, smaller hole yielded no sounds of life and an air sample detected little oxygen.
The footage did show a stable roof, a "survivable" space of 1½ metres and a supply of air and drinkable water, giving searchers hope the men could still be alive.
Crews of 50-60 men are working underground around the clock to try and free the miners. The mine's safety manager, Bodie Allred, who is also the cousin of one of the stranded men, said the damage inside the mine is some of the worst he's ever seen.
Still, he restated the need to continue searching with the assumption that the miners are alive.
"They know, they know damn well that we're doing what we can do to get to 'em, and we're gonna get there."
The former head of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration J. Davitt McAteer said there's always a chance the men survived the collapse, but that the possibility is quite small.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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