Mine owner says sixth hole will be the last

HUNTINGTON — A sixth hole scheduled to be drilled through a mountain to an area where six trapped miners may be will be the final attempt to reach the men, the mine's owner said tonight.

Crandall Canyon Mine owner Bob Murray said he doesn't know how to bring closure to their families.

"Bringing closure to the families is well beyond my power," he told reporters at a news conference outside the mine.

A fifth hole that punched 1,586 feet through the mountain today went only 6 inches before hitting a coal bed.

"It was within six inches of the roof; there was no one going to get in that area," said Jack Kuzar, a regional director for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Air samples were being taken and a camera would be lowered down tonight to hopefully glean more information about the fate of the miners. Four previous drilling operations have shown no sign of miners Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez, who have been trapped since a 3.9 magnitude seismic event collapsed the west-central section of the mine where they were working on Aug. 6.

In addition, air samples taken from the drilled holes have shown that oxygen levels in those areas of the mine are not sufficient to sustain human life.

Closing the mine

Murray insisted that he would never reopen the mine — ever. He said he told MSHA director Richard Stickler that he would submit papers to close the Crandall Canyon Mine.

Lately, Murray said miners have returned to the mine to remove some heavy equipment. The mine's employees have been transferred to other mines in the Price area owned by UtahAmerican Energy.

"I will never come back to that evil mine that is alive," Murray said.

Mining experts brought in over the weekend by mine officials and MSHA concluded Monday that the mine is too unstable to continue any underground rescue efforts. Miners had been trying to clear debris from the collapsed mine to reach the trapped men until Thursday evening, when three men — local coal miners Dale Black, 49, and Brandon Kimber, 29, and mine safety inspector Gary Jensen, 53 — were killed and six others injured in another seismic event.

Murray said all Crandall Canyon Mine employees have been transferred to Murray Energy's other Utah mines, Tower and West Ridge, and that he has no plans to reopen the troubled mine.