I hope and pray the trapped 29 miners in NZ are alive and will be rescued soon.
It must be one of the unholiest jobs in the world and I know many an Expat has come over here and their to make a buck, each to their own and it must be in the back of a miners mind every day they go to the face......especially tomorrow.

Indeed,let's hope it has a good outcome

Worst sort of waiting game at present. Can't get into the mine cos of the danger of gas and explosion, plus they think something may be burning underground. Aus sent mine safety experts from Qld and NSW yesterday, but all they can do at present is monitor the gas levels and wait......

I hate to say it but I dont hold out much hope for the poor buggers.....too many nasty gases and too long to get the oxygen down in their again, their self rescuers dont last that long

I agree, I just posted on the thread in the NZ forum that it doesn't look good. No-one really knows how bad it is inside, but with poisonous gas and something burning its not looking good as time goes on, is it.

As a underground miner, we know the risks and we are thinkingt about them. But as others have said, i think their chances are poor. If the mine is full of gas then their only hope is a rescue chamber, but i believe they have been able to comminicate with the chamber but to no response.

I think that everytime we use electricity, or pick up pretty much any item of modern day living from a mobile phone to a toaster, we should take a moment to remember the miners who have died in producing the material to make it.

Trapped - and dead.

Very tragic.

Reading through some of the info we've been getting through work. No doubt a lot of people have seen that there's also been a mine entrapment in China over the last couple of days, latest in a long line in that country. This article (and others) has an absolutely terrifying statistic in it -
China's mines are the world's deadliest; more than 2,600 miners died in accidents in 2009.

From my experience that is a big underestimate. I worked in a town in the north east of china exploring for gold and the town had a underground coal mine and in the 4 months i was there, there were fatal accidents pretty much daily. It seemed that they had calculated the cost of installing ground supprort - mess and cable bolts and worked out it was cheaper to just pay out the widows than install it.

Its shocking isn't it, and while not wanting to detract the attention from the situation in New Zealand it seems so wrong that so many miners die in China and it goes virtually unnoticed. I knew there were a lot of incidents over there but never realised it was quite so many

It is getting significantly better. But mining underground will always have its dangers and they ar multiplied when it is a developing country and a company that is from a developing country. There are safe mines in places like china, but they are operated by western companies

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8168807

Possible that these poor sods will never be recovered.

My OH works in a mine and he is very pessimistic about these guys chances. Apparently the explosion will have created temperatures within the mine of between 1200 and 1500 degrees. I dread to think what state any survivors, if there are any, are in. I just hope that whatever the outcome they find them quick - for the miners and their families on the surfaces sake.

The differing mine safety practices across the world really do make you wonder. Him indoors works for one of the biggest and most profitable, but they dont scrimp a cent on safety. They evacuate the pit for the slightest thing, and at even a hint that one of the two forms of egress might be in doubt - out they all come. The mind boggles how in other places they are expected to work in such dangerous conditions.

There has just been another explosion.

The news is reporting that it is very unlikely there are any survivors

Thats awful. I know it must be frustrating for those waiting for news to see how cautiously they've been moving, but justified caution now that another explosion has occurred, which has probably saved the lives of those who would otherwise be in the mine trying to rescue those trapped.