HUNTINGTON, Utah - Drill rigs perched on a steep mountain chewed through sandstone to within a few hundred feet early Thursday of six coal miners caught in a collapse 1,500 feet underground, one of the mine's co-owners said.


The machines were meant to open a slender lifeline if the men were still alive, but crews could not be certain they had cut the 2 1/2-inch-diameter hole on target.

The hole reached 1,300 feet deep, said Bob Murray, chairman of mine co-owner Murray Energy Corp. That left as little as 200 feet before rescuers could reach the chamber where the men were believed to be trapped and finally learn if the miners survived the cave-in early Monday.

A wider hole, slightly less than 9 inches wide, also was being drilled and officials hoped it could break through by Friday, Murray said.

"We will put cameras down. We will provide communication. We will provide food. We could keep them alive indefinitely," he said.

The drilling crews made significant progress overnight.

Efforts to clear tunnels to free the miners also made steady progress, Murray said.

Murray's pre-dawn update brought a sense of progress and optimism after earth movement Tuesday wiped out everything that had been achieved in an underground effort to clear rubble blocking a path to the miners, who were 3.4 miles from the entrance to the Crandall Canyon mine 140 miles south of Salt Lake City. Work on that route resumed Wednesday