Families, Critics Question Safety of Utah Mine

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»

(NEWSER) - At least nine rescuers at the Utah mine where six miners were trapped last week are injured after seismic activity may have caused another cave-in, CNN reports. Six or more ambulances and two helicopters rushed to the Crandall Canyon mine tonight to transport the wounded rescuers to the hospital. More»

Crews start drilling toward unknown sound

(NEWSER) - Rescuers digging for men who have been trapped underground for 10 days heard noise inside the mine today, prompting crews to drill a fourth hole in the sound's direction. They described hearing 5 minutes of “noise” through seismic geophones, ignighting some hope in an otherwise-discouraging rescue effort. "There's a very good chance we may find them alive," said the mine owner. 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»

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»