(Agujita) Mexican authorities announced on Monday a new strategy to rescue 10 miners who have been missing for 12 days in a flooded mine, after a sudden rise in water levels hampered rescue efforts and hopes on Sunday.
Posted at 2:18 p.m.
This sudden rise in the level of the water patiently pumped for more than a week to allow rescuers to descend underground, has aggravated the despair of the relatives of the miners who have not given any sign of life since August 3.
In one of three shafts rescuers hoped to enter this weekend, the level was 38 meters on Monday, up from 1.3 meters early on Sunday, said National Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velazquez.
This level is even higher than the day after the accident at the El Pinabete mine, located in the state of Coahuila (North), Mexico’s main coal producer.
The new strategy is to attempt to plug water seepage from the nearby, much larger and abandoned Conchas Norte mine by drilling 20 holes 60 meters deep to inject cement, Ms.me Velazquez.
Authorities believe that during excavation work, miners accidentally reached the nearby flooded mine.
“We are not going to stop our efforts to save the miners,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters.
PHOTO PEDRO PARDO, AGENCY FRANCE-PRESSE
Relatives of the 10 missing miners are waiting at the site for the search to continue.
On Friday, authorities announced that rescuers were about to inspect the mine after successful pumping operations. But the dim hopes raised for relatives sleeping in an encampment adjacent to the search area have faded.
The latter demand that the owners of the mine be held responsible: “this is a crime that cannot go unpunished”, declared Magdalena Montelongo, sister of Jaime, one of the miners trapped.
Coahuila, Mexico’s main coal-producing region, has seen a series of fatal mining accidents over the years. The worst happened in the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006 when a gas explosion killed 65 miners.