The man who led the U.S. government's investigation of a deadly mine explosion in West Virginia will lead a similar investigation of this month's Utah mine collapse, the head of the federal mine safety agency said Thursday according to The Associated Press. The work will be led by Richard Gates, district manager in Alabama for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, who investigated the January 2006 Sago mine explosion that led to 12 miner's deaths in West Virginia. The announcement was made in a statement by MSHA chief Richard Stickler. At the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah, six miners became trapped more than 1,500 feet (457 meters) below ground after an Aug. 6 cave-in. Several test holes drilled to find them had found no evidence by Thursday that any of the men survived, but also no sign that they didn't. Crews successfully drilled a seventh hole through the mountain and into the mine Thursday, said Capt. Kyle Ekker of the Emery County Sheriff's Office. Teams planned to send a robotic camera through the hole. Searchers tried tunneling through the fallen debris to where the men were last working, but three rescuers died in another cave-in Aug. 16 and that effort was called off. University of Utah seismologists insist the initial cave-in was violent enough to cause a 3.9 magnitude earthquake. The mine's co-owner, Murray Energy Corp., claims an earthquake caused the collapse.
