Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 16, 2022, p. 4
At dawn on Sunday, when the rescuers were already expected to enter the El Pinabete coal mine, in Sabinas, Coahuila –where 10 workers have been trapped for 13 days–, there was a sudden income
of water from an adjoining gallery, causing the depth in the wells to reach levels similar to those left by the first mishap.
During the conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the national coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez, indicated that after the recent accident a new strategy for the rescue has been defined, which includes the injection of cement in order to seal gaps by the that leaks could occur.
Until yesterday’s cutoff at five in the morning, the official explained, the flooding in well two was 38.49 meters, in three 41.04 and 38.15 in four, almost at the same level of 41.47 meters average that was reported in the graves for the incident on August 3. It was expected that they will continue to rise, since a water inflow of 2 thousand meters per second
.
Thus, the progress made in the 279 hours of work uninterrupted
in the operations to find the workers were unsuccessful.
According to Velázquez, during the 11 days of operations, 249,381 cubic meters had been released, which comparatively means 226,710 1,100-liter water tanks; so at four in the morning on Sunday the average flooding was 1.30 meters and the rescuers were preparing to enter well two.
However, 15 minutes before 6:00 a.m. that day, there was a new inflow of water into El Pinabete from the adjoining Conchas Norte mine, abandoned in 1996 due to a flood that was ultimately unaffordable
resolve, and since then it has accumulated almost 2 million cubic meters of water in its galleries.
After the incident, an underwater drone was introduced to capture images that revealed that there are blockages in the galleries of the mine.
Given this, the authorities and the technical advisory team defined a new strategy that includes four central points:
Continuing with permanent pumping –for which 14 pumps have been installed that add up to 990 horsepower and provide an outlet flow of 371 liters per second–; identify areas with voids by underground mining at depths of approximately 65 meters, using electrical surveys and geophysical records; drill 20 six-inch holes to a depth of 60 meters in the galleries of the Conchas Norte mine; and inject cement, through perforations in the galleries of the coal plate, for its sealing.
For his part, the federal president stressed that he has given instructions to reinforce the rescue plan and did not rule out requesting international support, as the families of the 10 trapped miners have demanded, although it will first be verified if the new strategy can work.
We are going to intensify the work. We have to continue with the rescue of the miners; We were doing well, unfortunately the mine collapsed even more, above all a hole of water from the neighboring abandoned mine widened, and when we were draining the water from the coal mine, where the 10 miners are trapped, we were once again volumes increased again.
he noted ruefully.
