Deadly Mine Collapse Draws Record Fine

But device should work in normal conditions

(NEWSER) - An 8-inch robotic camera’s descent down a 1,415-foot borehole in the collapsed Crandall Canyon Mine was cut short yesterday by several hours of steady rain, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The weather blocked positioning of equipment needed to drop the camera, as well as preparations for a seventh borehole, in the search for the miners who have now been trapped for more than two weeks. More»

Camera could reach shaft bottom by this afternoon

(NEWSER) - Reversing an earlier decision, recovery efforts will continue at the Utah mine where six miners were trapped three weeks ago. A seventh hole will be drilled into the mine, and a camera will be dropped into a previously bored hole to search for signs of life. Family members requested that the new hole be drilled to the kitchen area, where the men were supposed to congregate in an emergency. More»

(NEWSER) - The last hole drilled into the collapsed Utah mine where six men are trapped yielded no hopeful sign today; the space it reached was too small to support the men, a lawyer for some of the families told the press. "The only thing they told us is there is no void where the sixth hole is; there is no space," he told the AP after a meeting with mine officials. More»

Company decides to close mine permanently

(NEWSER) - Workers will bore a final hole in a bid to locate six miners lost in a Utah mine, but if that fails, the operation will be halted and the mine closed as a kind of memorial tomb, the owner said yesterday. "We're not going to risk more live people to get dead bodies," said Bob Murray. Three rescue workers died in a collapse last week. More»

With fate of missing miners still uncertain, economic issues surface

(NEWSER) - Days after three more deaths ended efforts to rescue trapped miners, Crandall Canyon’s operators are talking about reopening the Utah mine—to mixed reaction from families and townspeople, according to the Times. Some wonder how the area is safe for mining but not for continuing recovery operations; others point to the mine's crucial place in the local economy. More»