A rescuer takes part in the operation to reach ten miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in Agujita township, Sabinas municipality, Coahuila state, Mexico, for more than a week, August 13, 2022. PEDRO PARDO /AFP
The flooded mine in northern Mexico, where 10 workers were trapped for 11 days, saw a “sudden rise in water levels” on Sunday, August 14. The water level of well number 2 now reaches 12.92 meters. According to authorities, the ten miners were dredging on Aug. 3 when they breached a water table, causing three coal mines to collapse and flood.
On Friday the water level in well number 2 was 70 centimeters and the relief could still take place. On Sunday, the flooded mine experienced a “sudden rise in water levels” that could complicate the rescue operation, officials said. At wells 3 and 4, the water reached 15.5 meters and 12.5 meters respectively, an increase of 8 to 10 meters from levels recorded on Friday. The press release continued: “Engineers are assessing the situation on site and the reasons for this sudden rise in water levels. They will implement a new strategy capable of evacuating the water from the El Pinabete mine.”
Also read: In Mexico, ten miners stuck underground for several days
“The trapped miners will not be left in the lurch,” the rescuers reassured
However, this news comes as a particularly hard blow to the families of the minors, who have expressed fear that the procedure may be too late to save their loved ones. The sister of one of the trapped miners, Magdalena Montelongo, appeared badly shaken by Sunday’s news. “I don’t know what strategy they can implement now,” she told Agence France-Presse, before adding: “Maybe they lost control of the situation. »
National Relief Coordinator and head of the operation, Laura Velazquez, rushed to reassure families in a press release that “the captured minors will not be abandoned.” The rescue services are doing their best in “extraordinary conditions”, she explained, stressing that the El Pinabete mine was close to the Conchas Norte mine, which was abandoned about thirty years ago, a time when “its water levels had become very high is”. .
Miners’ relatives wait for news near the flooded coal mine that has trapped ten miners since August 3 in Agujita township, Sabinas municipality, Coahuila state, Mexico, August 14, 2022. PEDRO PARDO / AFP
Water is taken from the flooded coal mine in which ten miners have been trapped since August 3 in Agujita township, Sabinas municipality, Coahuila state, Mexico August 14, 2022. PEDRO PARDO / AFP
Mexican authorities announced on Friday that “conditions” had been met for rescue workers to enter the flooded mine and search for these 10 missing miners. Several hundred people are involved in the rescue, particularly with an underwater drone.
On August 7, four days after the accident, during a visit to the scene of the accident in Agujita, in the municipality of Las Sabinas, Coahuila state, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said: “We must keep working to save the miners. We must keep doing what we are doing and more. »
Rescuers take part in the operation to reach ten miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in Agujita township, Sabinas municipality, Coahuila state, Mexico, for more than a week, August 13, 2022. PEDRO PARDO /AFP
mining tragedies
As the only producer of Mexican coal, the state of Coahuila is used to mining tragedies. In June 2021, seven workers died after an underground collapse. On February 19, 2006, 65 miners died when an underground pocket of gas exploded at Pasta de Conchos, a mine controlled by conglomerate Grupo Mexico. Sixteen years later, 63 bodies still lie at the bottom of the mine.
Families have been calling for “action” against accidents for sixteen years, “and their pleas have gone unanswered,” lamented the Society of Jesus, which accompanies loved ones in demanding justice before international bodies.
In October 2010 in Chile, in the Atacama Desert, 33 workers managed to get out of a copper mine almost 700 meters deep after 69 days underground and a landslide.
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