US News
Hope fades for trapped Utah coal miners
Aug 20, 2007, 3:59 GMT
Washington - A mining company official conceded Sunday that hope is dimming for the survival of six workers trapped inside a Utah mountain when an underground passage caved in on August 6.
'It's likely that these miners may not be found,' Utah Energy Corp vice president Rob Moore said.
He spoke after video cameras and microphones again found no sign of life in mine chamber through a fourth hole drilled over the weekend.
The Crandall Canyon mine is located in the Rocky Mountains near Huntington, Utah.
Three previous holes punched into parts of the vast underground complex where rescuers hoped to find the six miners were also fruitless. The mine passage reached by the latest hole proved to have too little oxygen to sustain life.
Drilling work was planned on a fifth hole, the deepest yet at more than 600 metres into the mountain.
Digging to clear a collapsed mine shaft has been halted since another collapse on Thursday killed three rescuers and left six others injured.
It remains unclear if rescuers will be able to venture underground again, or how the trapped miners could be freed if drilling efforts were to produce any signs of life.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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