GREYMOUTH // The 29 workers trapped after a coal-mine disaster in New Zealand could have survived by sealing themselves off from toxic gases, experts said today, but they warned that rescuers must hurry to get them out.
New Zealand's prime minister, John Key, said there was "every chance" the men could be alive, having been trapped in the Pike River coal mine since Friday, but as families waited anxiously the mood at the site was grim.
Queensland University's David Cliff, who has worked in mine safety for almost 20 years, said the men could be sitting in an air pocket but it would be a race against time to bring them to the surface.
"The general rule with a coal mine is the faster the better," he told AFP, warning about the build-up of poisonous gases. "You have got to get out of there in a hurry."
Efforts to reach the miners have been thwarted by high levels of methane and carbon monoxide, and fears of a second blast, preventing frustrated rescuers from entering the shaft.
Mr Cliff said: "If they were in a refuge of some sort, if they have a supply of air, they might last a long time - we should not give up on that sort of hope.
"If they have been lucky and they are in the area of the mine which is relatively unaffected by the explosion, then they could have barricaded themselves in."
This would involve putting a cloth or other material up to isolate the area from the harmful gases. Another possibility was that the men had grouped at an outlet for the compressed air pipes which run through the mine.
But Mr Cliff said in stark contrast to the miraculous recovery of 33 miners trapped for almost 10 weeks in a mine in Chile, there is no guarantee than those at Pike River have access to breathable air, since the mine's ventilation system had stopped and methane was seeping out of the coal.
The mine, dug into a hillside, is accessed by a horizontal, 2.5-kilometre tunnel, while a large ventilation shaft brings fresh air from the surface about 150 metres above.
Pike River's chief executive, Peter Whittall, would not speculate on what conditions the men could be surviving in, but said air would be the priority.
"It would certainly be quite hot and stuffy because there's not a lot of ventilation down there," he told reporters.
Each man would have been carrying a breathing device which could generate oxygen for 20 to 60 minutes, and there were some of these stored underground.
But Daniel Rockhouse, 24, who survived the blast and stumbled to the surface in an agonising two-hour trek, has told of dragging an unconscious fellow miner to a "fresh air station" only to find it was flooded with poison gas because its door had been left open, while its only phone was not working.
"I said, 'you've got to be bloody kidding me!' I screamed and kicked the wooden seats," Mr Rockhouse said, He revived the man with compressed air and then helped him out of the smoke-filled mine shaft.
A Wellington-based mining consultant, Dave Feickert, said it was obvious the two survivors were extremely lucky. He said people needed to remain hopeful but warned that "the history of these things is usually pretty grim".
Ron Land, chairman of Coal Services Australia, which has sent 10 technical experts to Pike River to help the rescue, agreed hopes were fading.
"The length of time now, it's 72 hours since the incident, you are always hopeful but with the passing of each hour the chances of survivors is lessening," he told AFP.
But Professor Bruce Hebblewhite, head of engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said there were too many unknowns to dismiss their survival chances.
He said a major concern was whether a coal fire was still burning underground, creating poisonous fumes and risking setting off another blast.
One option could be waiting for the fire to burn itself out, he said.
"It could be a long time - you can't put a handle on it. It could be a major ongoing problem," Professor Hebblewhite said.
Mr Cliff said in the past, mine blasts have been followed by another explosion, for example at Australia's Moura No 2 coal mine in 1994, when a secondary blast sealed the fate of 11 trapped miners.
"There was an explosion on the Sunday night, and then 36 hours later just before rescue teams were getting ready to go in, there was a second explosion," he said.
AFP
Fight card
Bantamweight
Siyovush Gulmamadov (TJK) v Rey Nacionales (PHI)
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROM) v Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR)
Catch 74kg
Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) v Omar Hussein (JOR)
Strawweight (Female)
Weronika Zygmunt (POL) v Seo Ye-dam (KOR)
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli (TUR) v Walid Laidi (ALG)
Lightweight
Leandro Martins (BRA) v Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW)
Welterweight
Ahmad Labban (LEB) v Sofiane Benchohra (ALG)
Bantamweight
Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR)
Lightweight
Mohammed Yahya (UAE) v Glen Ranillo (PHI)
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) v Aidan Aguilera (AUS)
Welterweight
Mounir Lazzez (TUN) Sasha Palatnikov (HKG)
Featherweight title bout
Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR)
Virtuzone GCC Sixes
Date and venue Friday and Saturday, ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City
Time Matches start at 9am
Groups
A Blighty Ducks, Darjeeling Colts, Darjeeling Social, Dubai Wombats; B Darjeeling Veterans, Kuwait Casuals, Loose Cannons, Savannah Lions; C Awali Taverners, Darjeeling, Dromedary, Darjeeling Good Eggs
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
LEAGUE CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
Stoke City v Tottenham
Brentford v Newcastle United
Arsenal v Manchester City
Everton v Manchester United
All ties are to be played the week commencing December 21.
Company%20Profile
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Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
THE LOWDOWN
Photograph
Rating: 4/5
Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies
Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz
'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
match info
Union Berlin 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 40' pen, Pavard 80')
Man of the Match: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich)
What is tokenisation?
Tokenisation refers to the issuance of a blockchain token, which represents a virtually tradable real, tangible asset. A tokenised asset is easily transferable, offers good liquidity, returns and is easily traded on the secondary markets.
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
