Mexico: rescuers work to rescue the ten trapped minors
Rescuers participating in the operation to try to rescue miners trapped at the bottom of a mine in the state of Coahuila, August 10, 2022. © LUIS CORTES/REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Mexico is preparing to send divers to try to save ten miners trapped for a week in a flooded mine.
The mine located in the state of Coahuila collapsed with fifteen miners inside.
Five people managed to get out, no contact could be established with the other ten.
Advertising
Read more
The mine is about 60m deep and partially filled with muddy water and solid matter which has so far prevented rescuers from entering.
Mining engineer Raul Garcia tells RFI that he is pessimistic about the chances of finding the miners trapped alive: “
It is possible that the news that will reach us is unfortunately bad.
Many compare this situation to that of Chile, when minors were blocked.
But these mines were very large.
Here, they are very small, so the amount of oxygen that could be in any cellar is minimal.
And as for food, it is non-existent.
They're stuck in a space where they can barely move, or even move – we all think – because of the amount of water.
Now it's still possible, and we have this tiny hope that there is still life...
"
A soldier went down, Wednesday, August 10, for a few moments in the flooded mine in northern Mexico, where ten miners have been missing for a week, announced the local governor.
Coahuila state governor Miguel Riquelme later tweeted that one of the military divers had descended into shaft number 4 of the coal mine, but had run into "
obstacles to be able to enter the galleries
.
“
The pumping work will continue so that they can enter again and continue the search and rescue
,” he added.
A pierced groundwater table
Several hundred people are taking part in the rescue to save the minors, whose relatives are increasingly worried as time goes by.
According to the authorities, the miners were carrying out excavation work when they broke through a water table.
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.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Mexico
Raw materials
Industry