HUNTINGTON — Officials on Monday indefinitely suspended efforts to save six coal miners as a group of mining experts concluded that the area where the men were trapped was structurally unstable and would probably collapse again.þþRobert E. Murray, chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation, co-owner of the mine, said hopes of finding anyone alive were dim, a message he said he had relayed to relatives of the miners. þþThe miners were trapped on Aug. 6 in the Crandall Canyon Mine, and efforts to reach them came to a halt on Thursday, after the tunnel that rescuers were attempting to dig toward them caved in, killing three more men.þþ“I don’t know whether the miners will be found,” Mr. Murray said. “But I’m not optimistic.”þþA day earlier, relatives of the miners lashed out at officials and the mine’s owners, faulting their rescue efforts as insufficient and asserting that that they were simply waiting for the six buried men to die.þþA panel of eight mining experts from around the country met Sunday and Monday, poring over records of seismic activity before concluding that further rescue activities would be unsafe.þþRichard E. Stickler, a federal mining official who announced the panel’s findings, said that if any of the miners were discovered alive, a hole would be dug to send a rescuer down to lift out survivors. þþ“The significant risk is unacceptable to send a rescuer miner underground for the purpose of exploration,” said Mr. Stickler, an assistant secretary of labor and director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. þþOn Sunday, family members issued a statement saying Mr. Murray had promised to remove the miners dead or alive. Through their lawyer, Sonny Olsen, the families urged that a wider hole be drilled to pull the men up. þþFour holes have been drilled into the Utah mine. A fifth hole, started Sunday, had reached 850 feet late afternoon Monday, Mr. Stickler said, and was expected to reach its final depth of 2,038 feet by 5 p.m. Tuesday.þþFresh air was being pumped into the holes, Mr. Stickler said, though a camera and sensors lowered last week detected no sign of life. þþRob Moore, vice-president of Murray Energy, said on Sunday that coal could still be recovered from elsewhere the mine, an assertion that drew criticism the United Mine Workers of America.þþ“To do any further mining in an already unstable mine like Crandall Canyon is madness,” said Cecil E. Roberts, the union’s international president.þþMr. Murray insisted Monday that coal could still be recovered safely from other parts of the mine. And if the buried miners were never found, he said, he would shut that part of the mine down, and rename the rest of it. þþ“It won’t be Crandall Canyon,” he said, his voice thick. “We’ll seal the workings that we’ve been in forever.”þþ
Source: NY Times
