Major setback in mine rescue

HUNTINGTON, Utah - Seismic activity has "totally shut down" efforts to reach six miners trapped below ground and wiped out all the work done in the last day, a mine executive said yesterday.

"We are back to square one underground," said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp., owner of Genwal Resources' Crandall Canyon mine.

Still, "we should know within 48 to 72 hours the status of those trapped miners," Murray said. Rescue crews were drilling two holes into the mountain in an effort to communicate with the miners - provided they are alive.

Murray said unstable conditions below ground had thwarted rescuers' efforts to break through to the miners, who have been trapped 1,500 feet below the surface since early Monday.

"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 has insisted that an earthquake caused the cave-in. Government seismologists have said that the pattern of ground-shaking picked up by their instruments around the time of the accident appeared to have been caused not by an earthquake but rather by the cave-in itself.

Murray lashed out at the news media for suggesting that his men had been conducting "retreat mining," a method 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. "It was a natural disaster. An earthquake. And I'm going to prove it to you."

Amy Louviere, spokeswoman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration in Washington, said the men at the Crandall Canyon mine were, in fact, conducting retreat mining.

However, Louviere said that exactly what the miners were doing, and whether that led to the collapse, could be answered only after a full investigation.

Retreat mining has been blamed for 13 deaths since 2000, and the government requires that mining companies submit a roof-control plan before beginning such mining. Such a plan details how and when the pillars will be cut and in what order.

Genwal had submitted such a plan and received approval in 2006, Louviere said.

"As long as they abide by that plan, it can be a very safe form of mining," she said. "What we've found with recent fatalities is that the operator was found to not be following the roof-control plan."

Rescuers could not say yesterday whether the men were alive and had not heard any pounding from their hammers, as miners are trained to do when they get trapped.

"The Lord has already decided whether they're alive or dead," Murray said.

Two holes were being drilled in an attempt to get air and food to the miners and to communicate with them, mine agency chief Richard Stickler said at a news conference. Stickler would not comment on whether retreat mining caused the collapse, but he said the practice had been used there to extract coal.

Murray said that if the men were not killed by the cave-in itself, there was enough air and water for them to survive for days. The government's chief mine inspector in the West, Al Davis, was not as confident.

"We're hoping there's air down there," Davis said. "We have no way of knowing that."

Murray said there were 30 pieces of heavy mining equipment in place and 134 people dedicated to the rescue. Two C-130s from the Air Reserve in Pittsburgh were being sent with seismic equipment and staff.

After meeting privately with family members of the miners, Murray outlined plans to bulldoze a mountain path and erect a seismic listening device outside the mine that could reveal whether any men were alive.

He said that once the device was in place, crews would set off dynamite, a sign to miners to tap the ceiling with hammers.

The trapped miners were believed to be about 31/2 miles inside the mine, which is 140 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Four miners escaped, but they were not in the same area as their trapped brethren, according to Murray.

On Monday, seismograph stations recorded seismic waves of 3.9 magnitude, and authorities briefly thought the shaking was a quake.

Murray Energy insisted the cave-in was caused by an earthquake, saying the ground-shaking was in a spot 3,500 feet deeper than where the miners were. The company also said the shaking lasted four minutes.

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations and Jim Dewey of the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver said it appeared the trembling had been caused by the cave-in. Mine collapses have a seismic signature distinct from earthquakes because they tend to occur at shallower depths and at different frequencies.

The first motions of the Utah disturbance indicated a downward movement consistent with a collapse, scientists said. If it had been an earthquake, it would have produced up and down motions on the seismograms, they said.

Little was known about the miners; only one has been identified. The Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City said three were Mexican citizens.

Watch video updates via http://go.philly.

com/utah

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