Huntington, Utah — Seismic activity has “totally shut down” efforts to reach six miners trapped below ground for more than 36 hours and wiped out all the work done in the past day, a mine executive said Tuesday.
“We are back to square one underground,” said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp., owner of the Crandall Canyon mine.
But he was optimistic about the success of crews outside the mountain drilling holes in toward the miners.
“We should know within 48 to 72 hours the status of those trapped miners,” Murray said.
He said conditions inside the mine, where crews were reinforcing passageways and repairing ventilation systems, had become too risky.
“There is absolutely no way that through our underground rescue effort we can reach the vicinity of the trapped miners for at least one week,” Murray said.
Murray, who claims the cave-in was caused by an earthquake, said seismic activity and other factors “have totally shut down our rescue efforts underground.” At an evening briefing for reporters, he said the miners, if alive, could survive “for perhaps weeks” on air available 1,500 feet below ground.
“I want to make one point clear: Even though the mine rescue efforts have been slowed, the inflow of manpower, supplies and equipment have actually increased,” Murray said.
The update came hours after Murray sharply disagreed with the government over whether an earthquake caused the cave-in and whether the men were engaged in an often-dangerous form of mining.
Murray lashed out at the news media for suggesting his men were conducting “retreat mining,” in which miners pull down the last standing pillars of coal and let the roof fall in.
“This was caused by an earthquake, not something that Murray Energy … did or our employees did or our management did,” he said, his voice often rising in anger. “It was a natural disaster. An earthquake. And I’m going to prove it to you.”
