Crandall Canyon Search Suspended Indefinitely

Emery County, Utah were halted last Friday after experiencing what the Mine Safety and Health Administration reported as "a significant bounce." The seismic activity occurred in the early evening of Thursday, August 16, injuring six members of the rescue crew and killing three others. The MSHA is still unsure whether seismic activity caused the initial collapse of the Crandall Canyon mine, and plans to comment on it when they are able to make a concrete determination. Crews, however, experienced several of these bounces as they proceeded underground, the seismic activity regularly halting work. According to the MSHA, as of Monday, all further rescue efforts have been suspended indefinitely.

The rescue and drilling crews were attempting to breach a 2,038 foot barrier to where they believed the miners could be, extending first an 8-inch borehole into the collapsed mine, drawing from it air samples to determine whether human life could be sustained in the area, then pumping compressed air down through the boreholes. Prior to the seismic activity, workers retrieved mixed results on oxygen levels from a number of different boreholes; however, when microphones were lowered, no human noise was detected.

Long considered one of the most dangerous of all jobs, mining is an inherently hazardous profession; exposing workers to the possibilities of falls, seismic activities, collapses due to structural integrity of the mines, eruptions of gas, fire, large, powerful and potentially deadly machinery, among other dangers in the immediate. And while regulations and laws on the conditions of new and existing mines have reduced the number of fatalities over time, the mine remains a perilous place of work. This year alone, there have been 37 deaths in mines across the United States--17 in coal mining and 20 in metal and non-metal mining. According to the Department of Labor Statistics Division's National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, in 2006, mining ranked as the occupation with the second highest fatality rate and the tenth highest fatality number in 2006.

This graph shows the relative trend in coal and metal/non-metal mine employees in relation to the relative number of work-related fatalities in the coal and metal/non-metal industries from 1900 to 2006. Data on fatalities begin where the Department of Labor was able to collect it. These statistics were found on the website for the U.S. Department of Labor—Mine Safety and Health Administration database which is updated daily. ]]>