Efforts At Utah Mine Run Into Delays

HUNTINGTON, Utah -- Officials said efforts to contact six men trapped in a Utah mine since Monday have run into delays, and it could be hours until drilling is complete.

A specialized drill is chewing through the side of the mountain to provide a lifeline to the men. The first hole, about 2½ inches in diameter, will provide oxygen and food. Another hole is also being dug to place a communications wire and camera.

Officials had expected the lifeline tunnel to reach the chamber where the miners are believed to be Thursday night. But CNN reported that as of 9:00 p.m. MDT, the tunnel was still about 100 feet away from the chamber. It was estimated that the effort might reach the area around dawn on Friday.

When the small drill reaches the miners' depth, it's expected to then take two hours to withdraw the drill and lower a two-way communications device.

No one knows if the miners survived the initial cave-in early Monday at the Crandall Canyon mine.

The smaller relief hole is being drilled parallel to a second hole that is almost 9 inches wide. If the miners are alive, it's hoped the holes can be used for communication and to provide air and food.

No sounds have been heard since the cave-in, not even the hammering on the ceiling that miners are trained to do in an emergency.

Mining officials also said Thursday that a C-17 cargo jet on loan from Mississippi is on its way to the mine with additional equipment to assist in the rescue effort.

Owner's Safety History

Bob Murray, the co-owner of the Utah mine where six men are trapped, has campaigned to improve mine safety.

At the same time, his companies have racked up millions of dollars in fines over the last 18 months. Murray's Cleveland-based company runs 19 mines in five states. One analyst said the Utah mine where rescuers still don't know if the six workers are dead or alive has a "remarkable" safety record. But one of Murray's mines in southern Illinois has nearly 900 violations to show for this year alone.

The Galatia mine, which has about 850 workers and produced 7.2 million tons of coal in 2006, has 869 violations so far this year, leading one mining expert to believe the company is "just going for the production and not going for the safety."

Bruce Dial, owner of Dial Mine Safety, a consulting company near Charlotte, N.C., said the high number of fines, $1.46 million so far in 2007, indicates the mine is not taking the necessary steps to remedy problems.

The mine has accumulated more than $3 million in fines dating back to 1999. Records show Galatia is contesting many of the fines.

On June 4, MSHA inspectors cited and fined the mine $54,000 for violating regulations on the accumulation of combustible materials.

Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy, defended the company's safety record Thursday in Huntington, Utah, site of the Crandall Canyon mine.

"Every mine has violations and our record here, the violations we have received, have not been anything out of the ordinary -- dust on the belt rollers, things of that nature, just typical violations and, relative to the safety of this mine, it's a safe mine. All of our mines are safe mines," he said.

The National Mining Association, where Murray sits on the board of directors, has credited Murray with pushing for safety.

Officials Speak

During a press conference Thursday night to update the media on the efforts, Murray spoke briefly, his voice cracking as he praised rescue workers and the media for their efforts at the mine.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch also spoke at the press conference and said he hopes the situation will reach a resolution within the "next 24 hours."

"Our hopes, our prayers and our faith are with these miners and their family," Hatch said.

Rescue Attempts

Murray said underground digging had to be halted Tuesday because of seismic activity, wiping out all the progress rescuers had made in clearing rubble. Now, the mine chief said it's going to take at least a week for rescue crews to reach the six.

A federal Mine Safety and Health Administration official said if the men are alive, they could survive on available air "for perhaps weeks." However, the government's chief mine inspector is more cautious, saying crews are "hoping" there's air in the mine.

Some 30 pieces of heavy mining equipment and scores of workers have been brought in for the rescue effort.

The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, Richard Stickler, said ongoing seismic activity means the mine shafts have to be reinforced with new beams, and the ventilation systems are being repaired.

Another mining official said there's no way of knowing if below-ground air supplies are working.

Role Of Possible Earthquake Debated

The cave-in Monday might have been caused by an earthquake, Murray said.

"The activity happened at one mile deep and the miners were at 1,500 feet," said Murray at a Tuesday news conference. "It could not have resulted from the mine."

The initial earthquake, Murray said, was reported at 2:48 a.m. Monday and lasted 4.3 minutes.

"Bumps that we have in mining are instantaneous and don't last 4.3 minutes," he said. "It was an earthquake. It had nothing to do with mining activity."

Relu Burlacu, a seismologist with the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, said that it's too early to rule out an earthquake causing the collapse, or the collapse causing a seismic reading.

"When we locate an event, there are uncertainties," Burlacu said. "We're not designed to locate a mining incident with high precision."

Burlacu said that errors in the map view can be as much as one mile off.

"We have errors horizontally and vertically," he said. "The location has errors associated with it. This is still a work in progress. The evidence we have right now, it's consistent with a mine collapse, but it doesn't mean we rule out other models that fit what we recorded."

"Right now we are trying to understand the relationship between the event we recorded and the collapse," Burlacu said. "We don't rule out the event as an earthquake, but we don't have any evidence to say the two are independent events.

Emery County has had at least one prior mine disaster, when, in 1984, a fire in the Wilberg mine killed 27.

Neighboring Carbon County also has had three notable disasters. In 2000, two men died during an explosion at the Willow Creek mine; a 1924 explosion took 172 lives at the Castle Gate mine; the Scofield mine disaster of 1900 claimed 200.