(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-09 02:29

WASHINGTON - The six miners trapped 1,500 feet (475 metres) underground in a collapsed mine in Utah should be reached in two days with holes drilled to provide air, mine co-owner Robert Murray said on Wednesday.

Murray, president and chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., said they are preparing to resume clearing a path to the trapped miners now that it appears dangerous "seismic activity" reported Tuesday in the area has stopped.

No contact has been made with the miners since the Crandall Canyon Mine caved in on Monday -- although officials say the six men could survive for weeks in an underground chamber if they were not killed by the initial collapse.

Murray repeated that it could be at least a week before the miners themselves are reached. "It cannot be done in short of a week and it may be more," he said.

Rescue crews were forced to retreat from what was seen as the fastest way to reach the miners, using an abandoned mine shaft, after falling rock made it too dangerous, and had moved only some 310 feet (100 metres) closer since the cave-in.

But progress was being made to drill the air holes.

"The 2.5 inch hole from the drilling rigs brought in by helicopter as of 7 a.m. this morning was down 450 feet (137 metres) on the 1500-foot path to where we know the miners are trapped. In two days, if they continue this pace, that hole will be down to where we want it to be," he said at a news conference near the mine.

A bitter dispute erupted over the cause of the accident, with the mine's owner insisting an earthquake was responsible after geologists had said seismic activity detected at the same time was probably caused by the cave-in itself.