The authorities assured this Friday that “conditions” exist to enter the mine in northern Mexico where 10 workers were trapped nine days ago by a flood, reviving the hope of their relatives after two days of slow progress.
“We have all the conditions to go down today (…) to the search and rescue” of the miners, said the national coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez, during the morning conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Velázquez explained that the operation will be possible thanks to “97% extraction of the water” that flooded the coal mine in the town of Agujita (Coahuila state, north).
“The necessary resources are prepared to start the search and rescue efforts,” he insisted.
The water level is 70 centimeters in one of the three wells through which an attempt will be made to enter, compared to 30 meters the day after the accident, the Secretary of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, explained at the same conference.
-“God willing yes”-
“With that level you can already enter. God willing, yes,” David Huerta, 35, brother-in-law of one of the trapped workers, told AFP.
Although he has already abandoned the hard work of mining in the so-called “pocitos”, a risky and traditional method of extracting coal, Huerta says that he dedicated himself to it for almost 13 years.
He explains that when reaching the bottom of the wells, the zone of the “plate” of the mineral is reached, where the underground galleries or tunnels are deployed in which the extraction itself is carried out and where the workers are probably located.
“There, crews can enter and search faster,” he adds.
In the other two wells the level is 3.9 and 4.7 meters, added General Sandoval. The level that the authorities consider viable to maneuver is 1.5 meters.
“We are going to continue pumping anyway, the pumping is not going to stop. Some pumps are going to be replaced” by smaller ones. “It’s a slow process, but we don’t want to take risks,” said the Civil Protection coordinator.
– Activity around well –
In the rescue area, activity is observed around what appears to be the well with the lowest level of water, where AFP confirmed the presence of operators and military personnel.
Some give instructions and others observe the area in an apparent preparation for the eventual entry of rescuers.
Outside the security perimeter, family members awaited the departure or the phone call from their relatives within the area of operations to learn the details of the report that the authorities offer every morning on the activities planned for the day.
The government’s announcement restores hope to the community around the damaged mine, where on Thursday night a group of about 15 women arrived walking with candles in their hands and singing religious songs.
Already at the site they prayed an Our Father and prayed for the rescue to be successful.
The accident occurred on August 3, when a wall of a flooded and abandoned mine collapsed, causing the flooding of the shaft where 15 miners were maneuvering. Five of them managed to escape.
Since then there have been no signs of life of the 10 remaining workers, whose rescue involves several hundred people including soldiers, Civil Protection officials and volunteer miners.
Mining accidents are frequent in Coahuila, Mexico’s main coal producer.
The most serious occurred on February 19, 2006, when a gas explosion at the Pasta de Conchos mine, controlled by the conglomerate Grupo México, caused the death of 65 workers. Only two bodies were recovered.
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