Rescuers close in second attempt to find Utah miners

HUNTINGTON, Utah, Aug 11 (Reuters) Rescuers were hours away from a second attempt to contact six miners trapped deep in a collapsed Utah coal mine, saying they were still hopeful that the men had survived.

The miners have not been heard from since the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah caved in on Monday morning, and there was no sign of life when a two-way microphone was lowered 1,800 feet through a small drill hole late on Thursday.

The rescuers said survey equipment later showed the first drill had ''drifted'' some 85 feet as it made its way down from the surface and may not have pierced into the cavity where the men are thought to be stranded.

Tests taken with instruments fed through the 2-1/2-inch bore hole showed that the oxygen levels in the chamber were too low to sustain life, although no other toxic gases were detected.

A second, 8-1/2 inch drill was about 250 feet from its target depth today evening and officials said it should be there within several hours.

At that point rescuers plan to drop an audio and video camera into the hole which will be able to show 100 feet in each direction and provide better details of the conditions underground.

Rob Moore, vice president of mine co-owner Murray Energy, said directional devices used on the second, larger drill gave it a better chance of hitting its target.

'NO REASON TO LOSE HOPE' Meanwhile, crews were burrowing through rubble to create an opening large enough to reach the miners and pull them to safety. That passage was expected to take at least another four or four or five days to complete.

''There is no reason to lose hope,'' Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, told reporters at an earlier news conference. ''There is certainly a possibility these miners are still alive, because we don't know where this bore hole drilled in.'' ''At this point, the thing to do is continue on our plan, maintain our hope,'' Stickler said.

Officials say the men could potentially survive for weeks in an underground chamber if they were not killed by the initial collapse.

''We won't stop until we get them out,'' said Allan Borba, a a 39-year-old former miner whose cousin, Kerry Allred, was one of the men stranded underground.

Borba, whose foot was amputated at the ankle in a 1990 mining accident, has not been allowed to participate in the rescue effort but has rallied support for the men.

''It bothers me that I can't put a boot on right now and go help,'' he said.

Mine co-owner Robert Murray, chairman of Murray Energy, has insisted that an earthquake triggered the mine's collapse but geologists dispute that, saying that shaking recorded by their instruments was caused by the cave-in.

Controversy has also risen over reports that the miners were engaged in a dangerous operation called ''retreat mining'' when the shaft collapsed -- though Murray has denied that such a technique was being used.

Retreat mining involves supporting the mine's roof with a column of coal, then removing those pillars and allowing the shaft to collapse as miners move to safety.

The Crandall Canyon Mine is on a high desert plateau some 225 km south of Salt Lake City, in what is known as Utah's ''castle country'' because of the towering rock spires that dot the bleak landscape.

REUTERS SLD KP0915