Huntington, Utah – Ghostly video images from deep underground showed a tool bag, broken rock, a twisted conveyor belt and dripping water but no signs of life as the search for six missing miners stretched Monday into a second week.
Even as the grainy footage played for reporters, the mine’s co-owner insisted there was reason to believe the miners could be alive – the mine’s roof was intact and there was abundant open space and plenty of drinkable water.
“There are many, many reasons to have hope still,” said Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp. and co-owner of the mine.
On Monday evening, Murray said the pace of digging into the collapsed mine had picked up, with rescuers clearing out about 670 feet of the 2,000 feet of rubble they were expected to encounter in the mine’s main passageway. He said the effort could take several more days.
“The progress underground has picked up substantially,” Murray told The Associated Press after he gave a private briefing for family members.
Meanwhile, memos from a Grand Junction engineering firm revealed concern about structural problems at the mine as early as March, when a different underground area was damaged.
Rescuers were starting to bore a third hole deep into the mine, Murray said. Two holes drilled earlier have found no sign of life where the miners were working when a collapse hit the Crandall Canyon mine early Aug. 6.
The video was recorded Sunday evening by a camera dropped into a shaft more than 1,800 feet deep. It showed water dripping in front of the lens as light faintly illuminated objects – a chain, a twisted conveyor belt, a tool bag – 10 to 15 feet away.
“We see a lot of open area. We see good height. Space is what they need, and we saw a lot of space,” said Al Davis of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Murray said he believes the tool bag belongs to one of the miners, who may have been hundreds of feet away from the bag while working.
Davis said the view was basically what was seen in earlier attempts with the camera, but with better resolution and better lighting. Still, the camera saw only about 15 feet.
The new 8 5/8-inch hole was to be drilled to an area to which the miners might have fled after finding escape routes blocked.
Stickler said the concussion of the original earth movement may have trapped good air there.
The new drilling required 1,300 feet of new road to move the rig.
The increasing emotional strain on the relatives has been evident in recent days. The son of missing miner Kerry Allred appeared sad and tired during an interview.
“I’ve accepted all possibilities,” said Cody Allred, 32.
Twelve of the 80 miners working on the rescue have asked to be reassigned because they were frightened by what Murray called “tectonic activity.”
The drilling is an attempt to locate the miners while rescuers slowly clear a blocked horizontal access route to where the men were working 3.4 miles from the entrance. Officials said progress was slow because of the need to install extensive roof and wall supports in the tunnel.
According to a memo for the mine operators, structural problems caused heavy damage to two entries in the mine in March and led the company to abandon mining in a northern section.
But the company did not give up on the mine. Instead, it hired Agapito Associates Inc., a Grand Junction engineering firm, to analyze how to safely mine the southern sections.
The operators were mining directly across from the area that was damaged in March when last week’s collapse occurred.
Agapito’s April 18 memo to mine co-owner and operator UtahAmerican Energy Inc., which was first reported by The Salt Lake Tribune, said the operators were retreat mining – a common but sometimes dangerous practice that involves pulling out leftover sections and pillars of coal that hold up the roof.
Although Murray has denied that the company was retreat mining at the time of last week’s accident, MSHA officials have said they approved a plan for the mine to engage in retreat mining.
Murray said Sunday that it was Agapito that recommended Crandall Canyon’s mining plan, and he asserted that it was “perfectly safe.”
