Toxic gas levels inside a northern Mexican coal mine are too high for any of the 65 miners trapped inside by an explosion to have survived, the mining company said on Saturday.
The government and scientists had acknowledged there was little hope the workers missing since the February 19 explosion would be found alive. But confirmation that none survived didn’t come until an analysis of underground air showed it was too poisonous to breathe, said Xavier Garcia, president of Industrial Minera Mexico, a subsidiary of mining company Grupo Mexico SA de CV.
Garcia said a pre-dawn explosion that left the miners trapped had sparked temperatures reaching 600 degrees Celsius while releasing heavy amounts of methane gas and carbon monoxide, which spread to every corner of the Pasta de Conchos mine.
”The atmosphere inside the mine changed instantly, converting to an environment of high concentrations of methane and carbon monoxide and leaving the presence of oxygen at almost nil,” he said. ”These conditions made survival impossible.”
Asked if there would be any trace of the survivors left to find after the release of such intense heat, Garcia said: ”We are going to look for everyone.”
Even after the announcement, Jose Luis Silva (20) said he refused to believe his missing father was among the dead.
”Faith and hope are the last things to go,” he said. ”I won’t lose mine until they turn his body over to me.”
From the day after the explosion, chances for survival did not look good. Those trapped were only carrying a small supply of oxygen at the time of the explosion and each passing day without food or water made it harder to believe anyone would be pulled out alive.
Still, rescuers — many of them miners themselves — were careful not to trigger further explosions as they dug without the aid of heavy equipment for days in hopes of finding survivors or the remains of those killed.
They were ordered to stop their efforts on Friday, however, amid concerns their own lives could be in danger from the air inside the mine, near San Juan de Sabinas, 135km south-west of the United States border at Eagle Pass, Texas.
Garcia said conditions inside the mine would likely improve enough for rescuers to return in about two days to the area where they had already been working. But it was unclear when they might be able to advance further and search for the bodies of those killed.
”From the period of rescue, we have now come to recovery,” Garcia said, his voice cracking.
Garcia’s announcement came hours after teams of experts began painstakingly drilling holes above the collapsed mine to release the toxic gases below.
Machines bored holes up to 25cm in diameter to the bottom of the Pasta de Conchos mine, and officials analysing the air quality discovered there was too little oxygen to breath, Garcia said.
He said the company would continue to pay the missing miners’ salaries until social security benefits from their deaths kick-in.
Labour Secretary Francisco Salazar said he would work with Grupo Mexico and the state government to ensure the families of those killed each receive a new home.
In a statement on Friday, Grupo Mexico said it would give the 65 miners — if they were found alive — the equivalent of 10 years of their annual salary, or about 750 000 pesos ($75 000). A company spokesperson said if the miners were found dead, the families would receive the payment.
Some relatives said they wouldn’t accept that money, however, because it would mean the company might stop looking for the remains of their loved ones.
”Taking the money is like accepting that no more rescue work will be done and they will stay down there,” said Leila Hernandez, whose father, Ignacio, was among the missing.
Many of the 600 family members who had taken up residence in a tent city outside the entrance of the mine used the suspension of rescue activities on Friday as an opportunity to head home — physically and mentally spent after six days of desperate emotions and bitter nighttime cold in the windblown desert.
But about 50 stayed behind, voicing fears that the suspension might lead to a permanent suspension of rescue activities. There were about 100 relatives waiting outside the mine late on Saturday, when company officials began summoning them in small groups to the mine’s administrative offices.
Family members then left the offices crying and huddled together under tents, a sad foreshadowing to the official announcement that would come a short time later. — Sapa-AP