by Paul Foy
The Associated Press

HUNTINGTON, Utah - Images from a videocamera lowered Wednesday into the mine where six men were trapped 10 days ago showed an undamaged shaft and a curtain that could mean the men, if they survived the initial blast, found breathable air, the mine’s co-owner said.

Rescue officials were reviewing the images, which were the first from a camera lowered into the third borehole drilled into the mountain. The camera picked up no sign of the miners, but showed a hemp ventilation curtain that divides intake air in the mine from the exhaust air.

If the miners passed through the ventilation curtain, they would be in a pocket of good air, mine co-owner Bob Murray told The Associated Press late Wednesday.

“There was no damage at all. The roof is intact; no ribs have outburst. The floors are in place - it looked just as it did when we mined it,” he said. “If the men went in there, they could be alive.”

Earlier Wednesday, some noise was detected by devices monitoring vibrations in the mountain, raising “a very small amount” of hope that the men might be found alive, officials said.

The sounds detected by two geophones could be a rock breaking underground or even an animal, said Richard Stickler, chief of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.