On Aug.6, a mine at Crandall Canyon in central Utah collapsed, trapping six miners.
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Rescue teams are working 24 hours a day to reach the miners. Reports state that the miners might not be reachable for at least a week.
While their families and co-workers are waiting and hoping, the mine owner is callously scrambling to save his capitalist enterprise from criticism.
Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp., became irate when questioned about mine safety by the trapped miners’ relatives.
Evidence is mounting suggesting that the collapse was Murray Energy’s fault. The mine has received 325 safety violations since 2004; 116 were deemed “significant and substantial.”
The violations included mine-evacuation violations resulting from the mining technique utilized at the site. The “retreat mining” technique, where the roof of the mine is held up by pillars of coal, is the “most dangerous type of mining there is,” according to former top mine safety official Tony Oppegard.
The U.S. Department of Labor approved the mine’s plan to use the technique in June.
Murray maintains that an earthquake caused the mining collapse. But scientists disagree. The seismic wave patterns are consistent with those “induced by underground coal mining.”
As of Aug. 9, there still has been no communication with the miners.
