Mine Rescue Bid Goes Slowly

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29112, 26 January 1960, Page 13

Mine Rescue Bid Goes Slowly

(Rec. 11 p.m.) COALBROOK (Orange Free State), Jan. 25. \

Rescue workers trying to drill a 14-inch hole down to the 440 miners who have been trapped 575 feet below ground since Thursday at Coalbrook, Orange Free State, ran into difficulty early today.

Constant failures in the water circulation system of the highspeed drill slowed progress to a rate of only six-feet an hour. So far, the drill has penetrated about 100 feet. Mine surveyors have established that the trapped men can be reached at a depth of 515 feet instead of 600 feet.

The teams of two Europeans and 15 Africans working the drill faced almost unbearable conditions last night when a fierce thunderstorm broke over the area. The management of the Clydesdale Mine expects the first equip-

ment for an emergency shaft to begin arriving soon, but officials said that it would take at least two days before all the equipment could be assembled on the site.

All the resources of the AngloAmerican Corporation which operates eight coal mines and all South African gold mines—are being placed at the disposal of the Clydesdale management to help the rescue operations. The drillers have not yet reached the hard dolerite. So far they have been cutting through shale and sand. The drill is hollow and fitted with a substance which automatically seals the holes of the borehole.

Underground rescue operations have already been suspended as too dangerous because of more rockfalls, flooding and methane gas.

All rescue workers trying to hack through the solid wall of rock and crushed coal blocking all underground escape routes have been withdrawn. The men have now been trapped for more than 72 hours, with not the slightest sign of life reaching the pithead, where European and African women and children, united in grief, are keeping an unbroken vigil. On the surface, preparations are continuing for sinking a vertical shaft alongside the borehole to reach the men.

A cablegram has been sent to the president, secretary and members of the Clydesdale Colliers’ and Mineworkers’ Union at Coalbrook by Mr A. B. Grant, the president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. Mr Grant’s cable said that the members of the union and himself—as the son of a mine worker, and the president of a union with many former coal miners as members—were watching with all their hearts and sympathy the great struggle of the South African miners to save their workmates.