Mexico: Operations to Save 10 Trapped Miners Continue

On Wednesday, Mexico's Civil Protection Coordinator Laura Velazquez stated that rescue teams are within hours of entering the mine where 10 miners have been trapped for a week.

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Some 672 members of the Armed Forces have been working 158 continuous hours to extract water and be able to enter the mine in Sabinas, in the state of Coahuila, which was flooded after a landslide.

"It has been an intense week, with many commitments and we hope we will be within hours of carrying out this rescue," she said by videoconference during the morning press conference of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO).

Velazquez recalled that rescue efforts began on August 3, when Sabinas residents reported the collapse of a coal mine in the community of Las Conchas at 1:35 p.m. local time.

The tweet reads, "Exploration tasks with an aquatic drone in the Sabinas mine, Coahuila, are completed. The team was unable to submerge more than three meters due to various obstacles."

To enter the mine to save the workers, rescuers have had to extract 125,453 cubic meters of water so far. In the three flooded wells of the mine, where it is presumed that the workers could be, there are still strains of up to 10.2 meters to be pumped. Specialists also monitor methane gas levels to prevent an explosion when divers enter.

“Another very important level that is constantly measured is the explosion levels, which are optimal. There is no problem for the rescuers so they can enter at any time,” Velazquez said.

The collapse of the mine, from which only five workers managed to escape, recalls tragic accidents that have occurred in recent years. According to the Pasta de Conchos Family, which brings together relatives of workers who died in a 2006 landslide, there have been over 100 deaths of miner in this coal zone since then. 

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