Rescuers distraught at failure to find Utah miners one week on

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Rescuers said yesterday they were distraught by their failure to locate six miners buried underground in Utah a week ago, but grimly insisted they had not given up hope of finding the men alive.

As efforts to reach the trapped miners entered an eighth day, officials said they were preparing to drill a third shaft into the cavern where the men were believed to have been working at the Genwal Mine in Crandall Canyon.

A video camera re-inserted into the chamber late on Sunday shed no further light on the fate of the men, who have not been heard from since last Monday's cave-in that entombed them around 450 meters (1,500 feet) underground.

Although families said at the weekend they were losing hope of being reunited with their loved ones, mine owner Robert Murray told reporters on Monday that the miners may be alive.

"I'm very disappointed to be standing here telling you on the eighth day that we have not found six alive miners," Murray said at a briefing. "We are distraught. It's heart-breaking that we have not found them."

Murray, who insists a earthquake caused the accident -- a claim disputed by scientists -- said the initial concussion of the seismic activity could have claimed the miners' lives.

"The initial concussion could have killed these miners outright, if it did so they would not have suffered," Murray said. "But there are many, many reasons to hope and to believe that they may have survived."

Murray said rescuers were encouraged by the fact that video footage showed the roof of the cavern was intact and that there was a "survivable" cavity.

The video footage inserted into the mine was shown to reporters yesterday, offering a first glimpse of the dank, pitch black conditions that the men may have been trapped in.

While rescuers prepare to drill a new bore hole into the cavern, a separate advance through the mine's access tunnels was making painstaking progress.

Murray said the pace of the rescue effort was "too slow," but said hazardous conditions made it impossible to move faster.

So far rescuers had advanced around 183 meters (600 feet) and were still around 610 meters (2,000 feet) from the miners.

The Utah drama has revived memories of the doomed effort to reach 13 miners who were trapped after an explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia in January 2006. Twelve miners died and only one survived after being buried underground for 41 hours.