Leopold Ramos
Correspondent
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 5, 2022, p. 3
Sabinas, Coah., The Governor of Coahuila, Miguel Ángel Riquelme Solís, confirmed yesterday that there are 10 families that have requested information about one of their members, among those who were trapped in the El Pinabete coal mine, but he did not rule out that there more victims.
It is what really gives us the possible certainty that they are 10 nothing more; We are not ruling out that there could be more, but the reality is that right now there are 10 families that are looking for someone and that, generally, as you know, is what immediately alerts
he referred in a collective interview, at the site’s facilities.
Five miners managed to get out after the accident, of which four were hospitalized and one more was unharmed.
The water extraction works in the mine were carried out until yesterday with eight specialized pumps, of 150 horsepower altogether and it is expected that this Friday 17 teams with greater capacity will arrive.
However, according to the workers who managed to get out and the relatives of those who have not been located, what makes it difficult to find the miners is that there are more water leaks at the site.
The deposit, located in the town of Villa de Agujita, in this municipality, has a structure of three interconnected wells. Apparently, the workers who worked in the passageways perforated a wall that served as a containment to an underground river, which caused the flood.
We have faith that they can get out alive, as always, that they may have had space where they could take refuge and that somehow we can find them safe.
added the PRI president.
He indicated that the state authorities are not aware of the exact dimensions of the well because the plans are not up to date; they also do not know the direction of the tunnels and the internal conditions of the excavation.
“We are giving priority to the rescue and I have committed myself with the families to collaborate with the Federation to determine responsibilities, both for those who are owners, concessionaires or contractors of the mine.
These are the formats in which you can have a responsibility in the coal region; here it is characteristic that someone owns the concession, someone exploits it and there may also be a third party who is the contractor, the one who actually enters the mine
Riquelme Solis said.
In the wells, the water mirror or flood level is 34 meters below ground and the depth of the tunnels ranges from 60 to 70 meters.
The secretary of Labor in the state, Nazira Sogbi, announced that “the surveyors are analyzing all the surroundings to see if there could be more leaks from some bodies of water that could be around.
There are waterwheels, there are other mines, we know there are cuts and precisely what the team is doing is a survey to verify
that no more water is entering the mine, he said.
The Pinabete mine is located in the Villa de Agujita community, of the El Mezquite ejido, in a place called Las Adjuntas, where the Álamo and Sabinas rivers meet, on land belonging to the La Nacional and Las Conchas mines, which have been out of operation since decades ago.
