Report about earlier 'bump' disregarded
A 'bump' in March: Was a major red flag ignored by owners?
By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 09/01/2007 01:15:40 AM MDT
Federal mine inspector Stephen Falk went into the Crandall Canyon mine earlier this year, and what he saw troubled him. "I have been concerned about pulling pillars in this environment," Falk, a mine inspector for the Bureau of Land Management, wrote in February 2007, referring to the retreat mining going on in the mine - where huge blocks of coal left to support the roof are cut away, leaving the roof to fall in. So far, things had gone well, he wrote, but work was nearing the deepest part of the mine, where pressures from the weight of the mountaintop above would be most intense, and he predicted that things "should get interesting soon." He was back days later. A major seismic bounce on March 10 had rocked the mine, blasting coal from the pillars, damaging tunnels and supports, and making it impossible for mining to continue, Falk wrote in an inspection report obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune. It was a smaller version, and perhaps a harbinger, of the event that tore apart the mine Aug. 6, trapping a half-dozen miners inside, and it was never officially reported to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, as apparently required by federal rules. Late Friday, MSHA said the search for the miners had been suspended and that the men were presumed dead. Moreover, UtahAmerican Energy Inc., which operates Crandall Canyon, was retreat mining in the mine without notifying or receiving permission from the BLM, which manages the federal coal reserves. "The first time we saw, in this office, what they were doing was after the event happened and this map was put before us and we saw how aggressive they were on retreat mining," said James Kohler, chief of the solid minerals branch at BLM's state office, as he stood over a mine map that covered a conference table. "We never had it before us, and I can say with certainty that our mining engineers would have had some questions about it," he said in a recent interview. Kohler said Falk may have mistakenly believed the BLM had approved the mining plan. The BLM is looking at how the miscommunication occurred. MSHA has primary responsibility for mine safety; the BLM reviews plans for mining on federal land to make sure the coal recovery is economical, safe and environmentally sound. The mining plan approved by MSHA entailed carving into the two 450-foot thick barrier walls, which helped bear the strain of a mountain overhead. Areas on either side of the barrier walls had been mined out and were allowed to collapse. Only the barrier walls and thick coal pillars in the main tunnels kept the mine from falling in. But those pillars had eroded so badly under the strain, according to BLM documents, that the mine's previous owner, Andalex Resources, determined the coal could not be safely recovered and sealed the tunnels in 2004. Andalex also told the state that it did not believe the barriers between the mined out areas could be safely extracted. Robert Murray of Murray Energy Corp., who bought the mine in August 2006, had a different strategy. With MSHA's approval, his company drove four new tunnels into the north barrier wall, leaving behind pillars to support the roof, then cutting away the pillars and allowing the roof to collapse behind. It went as planned until March, when the pressure overwhelmed the supports and a major bump rocked the mine. Falk's inspection a few days later showed the extent of the damage: Coal that burst from the pillars had filled the tunnels for nearly 200 feet. Walls built to help separate paths for air had either been knocked out or damaged for roughly 1,000 feet. Areas deeper in the mine couldn't be safely accessed at all. Clearing out and rebuilding the tunnel network would be costly, Falk wrote. Murray's engineer, Tom Hurst, "said the risks are too great that this event will happen again . . . should they try pillar pulling again," and they were unsure they could retreat mine the south barrier, based on their experience in the north. Federal regulations require a roof fall or coal outburst to be reported if it causes an injury, damages ventilation systems or requires work to be suspended for more than an hour. Despite the extensive damage, there is no report of the incident in MSHA's publicly available records or its internal database. According to MSHA, the last reported roof fall at Crandall Canyon was in 1998. Dozens of calls have been made to company officials over more than a week seeking an explanation, but none has been returned. Kevin Stricklin, MSHA administrator of coal mine safety, said this week that "we're aware" of the March bump, but said it didn't necessarily need to be reported. "It depends on the size of the bump," he said. "It has to somehow affect ventilation or cause an injury, and talking to the mine operators, it did neither of those." The company told MSHA it was abandoning work in the north barriers because the pillars in the ventilation tunnels had deteriorated and become unsafe, but not because of damage from the March bounce, Stricklin said. However, documents Hurst wrote shortly after the March event contradict that version. He told the BLM on March 12 that during the retreat mining "a bounce occurred, compromising the bleeder ventilation system. Ground conditions in the area prevent economic recovery of the remaining pillars in the North Barrier." Tony Oppegard, a former MSHA official and Kentucky mine regulator, said the explanation for not reporting the March bump "doesn't pass the laugh test." "MSHA is making an illogical argument to cover their failure to issue a citation," he said. And the significance goes well beyond a paperwork issue, he said. "What's important is you report accidents so the federal agency can investigate if they need to and interview miners and find out what's going on," Oppegard said. "It's to prevent future accidents." Anne Lofaso, a law professor at the West Virginia University, said agencies are given broad latitude to interpret regulations, but that raises a greater question. "Let's say that MSHA can come up with an interpretation where [the operator] didn't have to report. The bigger issue then is that the regulations don't work," she said. "Assuming this thing happened in March . . . and this accident did compromise the safety of the mine such that it contributed to the latest accident in Utah and they didn't need to report it, then we need to question if these regulations are really working." Stricklin said the March bump will be part of MSHA's investigation into the Aug. 6 collapse. But it appears it was not an isolated incident. Falk's inspection reports that "pillar bumps were increasing" and damaging ventilation systems, and Hurst told him "a few large bounces occurred" before the large bounce in March. Seismograph reports show a major spike in activity, with 15 seismic events in the span of 12 days leading up to the largest on March 10, measuring 1.8 magnitude - an event larger than the Aug. 16 bounce that killed three mine rescuers and injured six others. After the pillar mining stopped, the mine was relatively quiet, with just five seismic events over the next five months. But as pillar mining again ramped up in July, the mountain again became active, with nine seismic events measured in the 17 days preceding the massive bounce that entombed the six miners. Walter Arabasz, director of seismograph stations at the University of Utah, said he and his colleagues noticed the spike in seismic activity, but without knowing more about what was happening in the mine, it is impossible to say what was causing the shaking. "That strong clustering of seismicity certainly attracts attention and warrants examination of what was going on in that mine," he said.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6778168
Sunday, September 2, 2007
BLUEFIELD COAL SHOW SEMINAR SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED
BLUEFIELD COAL SHOW SEMINAR SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED
Monday, 08/27/2007
The biennial Bluefield Coal Show, set for September 12, 13 and 14, 2007 at the Brushfork Armory Civic Center, will feature 225 exhibitors, bringing coal to the forefront of the Appalachian region
. During the three-day event, Technical Seminars will be offered for exhibitors and attendees, featuring relevant topics from prominent speakers within the industry.
Dave Langford of Appalachian Power is working with a committee of coal leaders to lineup the presenters.
Speakers and topics to date include: Bill Raney, WVCA, speaking on “Coal’s Contribution”;
Ron Wooten, Director of WV Office of Miner’s Health, Safety & Training, on “Safety Developments in WV Since Sago”; representative of Rentech, Inc., on “Coal Conversion”;
Bill Reid, Editor of Coal News and former President of EMICO, on “Public Perception of Coal”;
William Tate, CEO, DBT Global; Mike Adamczyk, Joy Mining Machinery, on “Mining Machinery Development and Contribution to Mining Safety”;
Paul Bailey, Center for Energy and Economic Development, speaking on “Climate Change”; and,
Steve Antoline, President of Superior Highwall, will present “Twenty Years of Highwall Mining.”
The seminars will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 12 and Thursday, Sept. 13 in the classroom of the main building of the Brushfork Armory Civic Center.
For more information, call the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce (304/327-7184), or visit the website at www.bluefieldchamber.com.
Monday, 08/27/2007
The biennial Bluefield Coal Show, set for September 12, 13 and 14, 2007 at the Brushfork Armory Civic Center, will feature 225 exhibitors, bringing coal to the forefront of the Appalachian region
. During the three-day event, Technical Seminars will be offered for exhibitors and attendees, featuring relevant topics from prominent speakers within the industry.
Dave Langford of Appalachian Power is working with a committee of coal leaders to lineup the presenters.
Speakers and topics to date include: Bill Raney, WVCA, speaking on “Coal’s Contribution”;
Ron Wooten, Director of WV Office of Miner’s Health, Safety & Training, on “Safety Developments in WV Since Sago”; representative of Rentech, Inc., on “Coal Conversion”;
Bill Reid, Editor of Coal News and former President of EMICO, on “Public Perception of Coal”;
William Tate, CEO, DBT Global; Mike Adamczyk, Joy Mining Machinery, on “Mining Machinery Development and Contribution to Mining Safety”;
Paul Bailey, Center for Energy and Economic Development, speaking on “Climate Change”; and,
Steve Antoline, President of Superior Highwall, will present “Twenty Years of Highwall Mining.”
The seminars will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 12 and Thursday, Sept. 13 in the classroom of the main building of the Brushfork Armory Civic Center.
For more information, call the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce (304/327-7184), or visit the website at www.bluefieldchamber.com.
West Virginia Coal Association Releases 2007 Coal Facts
West Virginia Coal Association Releases 2007 Coal Facts
Did you know that 99% of West Virginia electricity and more than half of American electricity is generated by coal produced in West Virginia?
Or that every coal mining job generates between five and six other jobs in the local economy?
Last year West Virginia mines produced 158.8 million tons of coal, 2nd only to Wyoming.
Of that coal 91.9 million tons were produced in underground mining operations, more than any other state in the U.S. These facts, along with many others are disclosed in Coal Facts 2007, a West Virginia Coal Association publication released earlier this week. Coal Facts is an annual, limited-run, magazine-style publication made available to media outlets and government agencies.
Coal Facts highlights a multitude of diverse facts about the coal industry. "This is a terrific publication that is a valuable tool for people in our industry and people that want to know about our industry," West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney said. "We do our best to make sure Coal Facts contains just about anything a person would want to know about coal production in our state."
The publication offers production figures for West Virginia and the United States, broken down by counties and states, respectively. Coal Facts also lists production by companies.
This year’s 35th edition states that 48,720 West Virginians are directly employed in mining coal with 13,511 working in underground mines, 7,022 in surface mines, 2,387 in coal handling facilities and 25,800 as contractors. Leading the coal producing corporate group is CONSOL Energy, Inc. with a total of 17.9 million tons.
Boone County is first in coal production with 32.8 million tons. Among those statistics, Coal Facts offers a comprehensive breakdown of the $25.4 million distributed to West Virginia counties and municipalities from coal severance tax collections. West Virginia coal companies paid more than $300 in severance taxes during 2006.
"All of these statistics reveal the overwhelmingly positive impact our people have on West Virginia, its economy and its people," Raney said. "It is tremendous testimony to their work ethic and their accomplishments."
For additional information contact Bill Raney with the WVCA at 304-342-4153.
Did you know that 99% of West Virginia electricity and more than half of American electricity is generated by coal produced in West Virginia?
Or that every coal mining job generates between five and six other jobs in the local economy?
Last year West Virginia mines produced 158.8 million tons of coal, 2nd only to Wyoming.
Of that coal 91.9 million tons were produced in underground mining operations, more than any other state in the U.S. These facts, along with many others are disclosed in Coal Facts 2007, a West Virginia Coal Association publication released earlier this week. Coal Facts is an annual, limited-run, magazine-style publication made available to media outlets and government agencies.
Coal Facts highlights a multitude of diverse facts about the coal industry. "This is a terrific publication that is a valuable tool for people in our industry and people that want to know about our industry," West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney said. "We do our best to make sure Coal Facts contains just about anything a person would want to know about coal production in our state."
The publication offers production figures for West Virginia and the United States, broken down by counties and states, respectively. Coal Facts also lists production by companies.
This year’s 35th edition states that 48,720 West Virginians are directly employed in mining coal with 13,511 working in underground mines, 7,022 in surface mines, 2,387 in coal handling facilities and 25,800 as contractors. Leading the coal producing corporate group is CONSOL Energy, Inc. with a total of 17.9 million tons.
Boone County is first in coal production with 32.8 million tons. Among those statistics, Coal Facts offers a comprehensive breakdown of the $25.4 million distributed to West Virginia counties and municipalities from coal severance tax collections. West Virginia coal companies paid more than $300 in severance taxes during 2006.
"All of these statistics reveal the overwhelmingly positive impact our people have on West Virginia, its economy and its people," Raney said. "It is tremendous testimony to their work ethic and their accomplishments."
For additional information contact Bill Raney with the WVCA at 304-342-4153.
Clean energy? Coal-to-liquids promise an expensive, polluting scam
Clean energy? Coal-to-liquids promise an expensive, polluting scam
In mid-August, the National Coal-to-Liquids Conference in Raleigh County featured a collection of industrialists, politicians and PR practitioners touting the benefits of new plants using an old process to turn coal into liquid fuels.
The cost of petroleum keeps going up, they pointed out, and much of it comes from volatile, unfriendly regions. They want to replace it with liquid made out of coal, an abundant domestic resource. It will be cheaper than gas, they say, provided initial costs are subsidized by taxpayers. Liquid coal burns cleaner than diesel, they claim. They say the carbon dioxide from coal to liquid refineries can be sequestered, and that building and running these plants will create thousands of jobs.
All these claims are true, but they leave a lot out. To begin with, coal may be abundant, but the most easily accessible seams have already been mined, so the expense keeps going up. Doubling national coal extraction, as proposed by coal-to-liquids pushers, would replace only 10 percent of the oil we use. Here in West Virginia, it would mean even more of our beautiful, rich mountains being ravaged, ruined and then “reclaimed” ... used once and thrown away like a tissue.
Secondly, the prices quoted leave out the cost of carbon taxes and carbon sequestration. Why are the backers so feverishly trying to get public support for these projects? Private investors are leery of sinking money into expensive ventures with costs likely to skyrocket once policy finally catches up to the realities of climate change. Some kind of cap-and-trade program or carbon tax now seems inevitable. So those who stand to gain from the plants want to rush these things into production before the regulatory landscape changes, and they want us to foot the bill.
We don’t even know whether sequestration will work. It has never been tried on a large scale. Talk about sequestration works as a kind of bait-and-switch scam: when people talk about the consequences of massive climate change and the need to drastically reduce greenhouse gases, coal interests tout carbon sequestration as a solution. But when it comes to actual proposals, they don’t want to build actual plants that capture and then sequester actual carbon dioxide, because that’s too expensive.
Then there’s the claim that the fuel burns cleaner than diesel.
It does (although less clean than gasoline). But producing the fuel is a dirty process — and where do you suppose they’ll build these pollution factories? Near the coal, of course, meaning West Virginians will have yet more burdens on our lungs, in a region that has some of the dirtiest air in the country thanks to a dense concentration of old, filthy power plants. (Check out www.cleartheair/dirtypower.)
It’s also perfectly true that building and running and fueling coal-to-liquids plants would create thousands of jobs, but so would building windmills or concentrated solar thermal power plants or solar panels, and we could do any of those things without destroying our mountains, our air, our water and our future
Let’s stop selling this state so cheap! The West Virginia work force has an excellent reputation. Why shouldn’t our federal representatives demand provisions in the energy bills to give laid-off miners and power plant workers first dibs on the new jobs in conservation, efficiency and renewable energy? They should, but they won’t, because our political process guarantees that politicians cater to the needs of their contributors, not their constituents.
Thus we have huge subsidies going into inefficient production of ethanol from corn, because Archer Daniels Midland gives big bucks to politicians. What the rest of us get out of it is higher food prices. If we don’t stand up now, we’ll have a similar scam operating in our own backyard, with tax money wasted on an inefficient way to make fuel from coal, and what we’ll get out of it is more pollution and more destroyed land.
Now is the time to put the pressure on your representatives to vote for real solutions, such as raised gas mileage standards for vehicles, creation of a modern, efficient train system and direction of subsidies for renewable energy into improving the efficiency and lowering the cost of genuine renewables — solar energy, wind and perhaps tidal power and geothermal energy — not into boondoggles to benefit special interest groups.
Wildfire, of Spencer, is a member of and volunteer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Council.
In mid-August, the National Coal-to-Liquids Conference in Raleigh County featured a collection of industrialists, politicians and PR practitioners touting the benefits of new plants using an old process to turn coal into liquid fuels.
The cost of petroleum keeps going up, they pointed out, and much of it comes from volatile, unfriendly regions. They want to replace it with liquid made out of coal, an abundant domestic resource. It will be cheaper than gas, they say, provided initial costs are subsidized by taxpayers. Liquid coal burns cleaner than diesel, they claim. They say the carbon dioxide from coal to liquid refineries can be sequestered, and that building and running these plants will create thousands of jobs.
All these claims are true, but they leave a lot out. To begin with, coal may be abundant, but the most easily accessible seams have already been mined, so the expense keeps going up. Doubling national coal extraction, as proposed by coal-to-liquids pushers, would replace only 10 percent of the oil we use. Here in West Virginia, it would mean even more of our beautiful, rich mountains being ravaged, ruined and then “reclaimed” ... used once and thrown away like a tissue.
Secondly, the prices quoted leave out the cost of carbon taxes and carbon sequestration. Why are the backers so feverishly trying to get public support for these projects? Private investors are leery of sinking money into expensive ventures with costs likely to skyrocket once policy finally catches up to the realities of climate change. Some kind of cap-and-trade program or carbon tax now seems inevitable. So those who stand to gain from the plants want to rush these things into production before the regulatory landscape changes, and they want us to foot the bill.
We don’t even know whether sequestration will work. It has never been tried on a large scale. Talk about sequestration works as a kind of bait-and-switch scam: when people talk about the consequences of massive climate change and the need to drastically reduce greenhouse gases, coal interests tout carbon sequestration as a solution. But when it comes to actual proposals, they don’t want to build actual plants that capture and then sequester actual carbon dioxide, because that’s too expensive.
Then there’s the claim that the fuel burns cleaner than diesel.
It does (although less clean than gasoline). But producing the fuel is a dirty process — and where do you suppose they’ll build these pollution factories? Near the coal, of course, meaning West Virginians will have yet more burdens on our lungs, in a region that has some of the dirtiest air in the country thanks to a dense concentration of old, filthy power plants. (Check out www.cleartheair/dirtypower.)
It’s also perfectly true that building and running and fueling coal-to-liquids plants would create thousands of jobs, but so would building windmills or concentrated solar thermal power plants or solar panels, and we could do any of those things without destroying our mountains, our air, our water and our future
Let’s stop selling this state so cheap! The West Virginia work force has an excellent reputation. Why shouldn’t our federal representatives demand provisions in the energy bills to give laid-off miners and power plant workers first dibs on the new jobs in conservation, efficiency and renewable energy? They should, but they won’t, because our political process guarantees that politicians cater to the needs of their contributors, not their constituents.
Thus we have huge subsidies going into inefficient production of ethanol from corn, because Archer Daniels Midland gives big bucks to politicians. What the rest of us get out of it is higher food prices. If we don’t stand up now, we’ll have a similar scam operating in our own backyard, with tax money wasted on an inefficient way to make fuel from coal, and what we’ll get out of it is more pollution and more destroyed land.
Now is the time to put the pressure on your representatives to vote for real solutions, such as raised gas mileage standards for vehicles, creation of a modern, efficient train system and direction of subsidies for renewable energy into improving the efficiency and lowering the cost of genuine renewables — solar energy, wind and perhaps tidal power and geothermal energy — not into boondoggles to benefit special interest groups.
Wildfire, of Spencer, is a member of and volunteer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Council.
Mine deaths
Mine deaths
China disastrous
Utah’s coal mine tragedy killed six miners and three rescuers. West Virginia’s 2006 Sago tragedy killed 12. America was shaken, and vowed still more mine safety rigors.
Yet during the same period, thousands upon thousands of coal diggers perished inside China’s treacherous underground mines. Their deaths cause only a tiny fraction of the public notice triggered by U.S. disasters.
“Mine safety in China is about where we were in the United States in the 1800s,” Phil Smith, a United Mine Workers spokesman, said after the Sago tragedy. “There is little or no regard by the companies for their workers. Their only goal is for production.”
The latest underground tragedy in China came when a rain-swollen river flooded two coal mines Aug. 23, trapping 181 miners. Chinese officials accepted no responsibility, calling it a “natural disaster.”
In 2005, the Beijing government reported that 5,986 Chinese coal miners died in accidents — a death rate more than 100 times higher than America’s. But far more fatalities probably go unreported.
Labor rights publications such as the China Labor Bulletin, published in Hong Kong, estimate the real number of mining deaths in China may be 20,000 a year.
Timothy Weston of AsiaMedia at the University of California-Los Angeles, observed: “The drama in Utah received wall-to-wall saturation coverage in the American media. But the far more horrendous Chinese coal mine disaster received merely sidebar-style coverage from most news outlets.”
Chinese reporters face danger. Beijing reporter Lan Chengzhang was beaten to death Jan. 9 after he arrived at an illegal coal mine near the northern Chinese city of Datong. The operator of that small mine was convicted of organizing the attack and sentenced to life in prison in June.
Cheap but unsafe Chinese imports attract wide attention in U.S. news these days. Yet few Americans think about repressive working conditions that let Chinese companies produce such cheap products by paying their workers pennies an hour to work in unsafe conditions.
The exploding Chinese economy depends on coal-fueled power plants for the vast majority of its electricity. Since 2000, coal production has more than doubled. More miners probably died in China in the past five years than died in the United States since 1900.
American mine deaths are horrible, as West Virginia sadly knows. But it’s strange that America merely shrugs about gruesome fatalities elsewhere that are hundreds of times worse.
China disastrous
Utah’s coal mine tragedy killed six miners and three rescuers. West Virginia’s 2006 Sago tragedy killed 12. America was shaken, and vowed still more mine safety rigors.
Yet during the same period, thousands upon thousands of coal diggers perished inside China’s treacherous underground mines. Their deaths cause only a tiny fraction of the public notice triggered by U.S. disasters.
“Mine safety in China is about where we were in the United States in the 1800s,” Phil Smith, a United Mine Workers spokesman, said after the Sago tragedy. “There is little or no regard by the companies for their workers. Their only goal is for production.”
The latest underground tragedy in China came when a rain-swollen river flooded two coal mines Aug. 23, trapping 181 miners. Chinese officials accepted no responsibility, calling it a “natural disaster.”
In 2005, the Beijing government reported that 5,986 Chinese coal miners died in accidents — a death rate more than 100 times higher than America’s. But far more fatalities probably go unreported.
Labor rights publications such as the China Labor Bulletin, published in Hong Kong, estimate the real number of mining deaths in China may be 20,000 a year.
Timothy Weston of AsiaMedia at the University of California-Los Angeles, observed: “The drama in Utah received wall-to-wall saturation coverage in the American media. But the far more horrendous Chinese coal mine disaster received merely sidebar-style coverage from most news outlets.”
Chinese reporters face danger. Beijing reporter Lan Chengzhang was beaten to death Jan. 9 after he arrived at an illegal coal mine near the northern Chinese city of Datong. The operator of that small mine was convicted of organizing the attack and sentenced to life in prison in June.
Cheap but unsafe Chinese imports attract wide attention in U.S. news these days. Yet few Americans think about repressive working conditions that let Chinese companies produce such cheap products by paying their workers pennies an hour to work in unsafe conditions.
The exploding Chinese economy depends on coal-fueled power plants for the vast majority of its electricity. Since 2000, coal production has more than doubled. More miners probably died in China in the past five years than died in the United States since 1900.
American mine deaths are horrible, as West Virginia sadly knows. But it’s strange that America merely shrugs about gruesome fatalities elsewhere that are hundreds of times worse.
Search for trapped Utah miners ends after 25 days
Search for trapped Utah miners ends after 25 days
September 1, 2007
A search for six coal miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah is over after 25 days, an official with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration said on Saturday.
"Unfortunately, our hopeful efforts have resulted in no signs of life from these miners," Richard Stickler, assistant secretary for MSHA, said in a statement.
"Sadly, there is no remaining hope of finding these miners alive."
The six have not been heard from since the mine in Huntington, Utah, collapsed on August 6, stranding them some 1,800 feet below ground.
It remains unclear what caused the collapse. Mine co-owner Robert Murray has said it was triggered by an earthquake but geologists disagree, saying the collapse caused magnitude 3.9 seismic waves.
Below-ground search efforts for the trapped miners were suspended after three rescuers were killed and six injured by a cave-in on August 16.
September 1, 2007
A search for six coal miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah is over after 25 days, an official with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration said on Saturday.
"Unfortunately, our hopeful efforts have resulted in no signs of life from these miners," Richard Stickler, assistant secretary for MSHA, said in a statement.
"Sadly, there is no remaining hope of finding these miners alive."
The six have not been heard from since the mine in Huntington, Utah, collapsed on August 6, stranding them some 1,800 feet below ground.
It remains unclear what caused the collapse. Mine co-owner Robert Murray has said it was triggered by an earthquake but geologists disagree, saying the collapse caused magnitude 3.9 seismic waves.
Below-ground search efforts for the trapped miners were suspended after three rescuers were killed and six injured by a cave-in on August 16.
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