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HUNTINGTON - The fifth borehole drilled in search of six men trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine showed the worst results yet - a near-complete cave-in within the main escape tunnel.
A mere six inches exist between the ceiling of the mine and tons of rubble.
So organizers of the consistently disappointing search for the miners will begin drilling a sixth borehole today, targeting the area where the missing men were working. If it, too, shows no signs of life, mine co-owner Robert Murray said Wednesday the borehole will be the last.
"If we don't find anyone alive in that hole," he said, "there is no place anyone in our company or [the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration] would know where to drill."
Previous boreholes were aimed at areas where rescue organizers hypothesized the miners might have gone when a catastrophic collapse of the mine's walls occurred during the graveyard shift on Aug. 6.
None produced any evidence of the trapped men: Brandon Phillips, Luis Alonso Hernandez, Don Erickson, Juan Carlos Payan, Kerry Allred and Manuel Sanchez.
By zeroing in on the area where the men were working when the collapse occurred, a sixth borehole might show organizers the miners were killed outright when the tunnel walls imploded.
Given the toxic air found in the overall working section by monitors lowered down through previous boreholes, the chances of anyone surviving are virtually nil. But if a camera lowered down the borehole shows the miners' bodies, it could at least give their families much-needed confirmation that their worst fears have been realized.
Murray emphasized Wednesday the mine remains too dangerous to send anyone underground - either through rubble-clogged tunnels that have already killed three would-be rescuers, or down a 2,000-foot shaft in a 36-inch-diameter capsule.
He said he is prepared to abandon the Crandall Canyon mine, and the South Crandall Canyon mine on the other side of the narrow draw, and its 11.3 million tons of recoverable coal. The current value of that coal would be $267 million, according to the Utah Geological Survey.
Murray said he made the decision just one day after a second "bump" caused a violent wall failure that killed rescuers Brandon Kimber, Gary Jensen and Dale "Bird" Black.
"On August 17," Murray said, "I advised the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration [MSHA] that I was submitting the papers to permanently close and seal the mine.
"I will never come back to that evil mountain," Murray added.
But he also said that sometime down the road, new studies and more advanced technology may make it possible to re-enter the mine.
Murray has repeatedly insisted that Murray Energy Corp. and its Utah subsidiary, UtahAmerican Energy Inc., never changed mining plans submitted to MSHA by the former owner/operator, Andalex Resources. Murray bought the mine from Andalex last August.
But Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining records show UtahAmerican Energy changed the plan in November, receiving MSHA approval to mine a long, thick block of coal north of the now-collapsed section, and in February asked MSHA's permission to do the same on a similar block of coal to the south. Both were left there originally to hold up the mine's roof under 2,000 feet of mountain cover.
State records show MSHA approved the request for the southern block of coal in June, even though a report from a company-hired consultant said work on the northern coal block caused a sizable collapse in March.
Confronted with those details Wednesday, Murray said he had no knowledge of the changes.
"I get a report from the mine every week, first describing the safety, production and other matters," he said. "That subject has never been brought to my attention."
He also accused Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. of "playing politics" in asking MSHA to conduct additional inspections of the other two UtahAmerican Energy coal mines in Utah - the Tower and West Ridge mines in the Book Cliffs coal field in Carbon County. Murray said he already has asked for such a review.
Crandall Canyon miners have been transferred to those other operations.
Murray continued to defend the decision not to risk using a capsule Wednesday, despite pleas from the families of the trapped miners.
"Their suggestion is based on emotions and not reality," he said, citing last week's fatal outburst and the recommendation of an outside group of ground-control experts. The families ''don't think I'm doing enough. I'm praying to my God that I am. . . . No one on the face of the Earth shares their grief more than I do."
Yet some friends of the trapped miners' families posted picket signs Wednesday urging the mine owner not to entomb the miners in the Crandall Canyon mine.
Murray has said the United Mine Workers of America union is behind that tactic.
Stephanie McNeil, who described herself as a lifelong friend of a daughter of Manuel Sanchez, said "it's not just the families who want the bodies out."
''It's the community. They need to come home. They don't need to stay down there."