By PAUL FOY
The Associated Press

HUNTINGTON, Utah - Efforts to reach six coal miners trapped more than 1,500 feet underground will take at least three days, and rescuers weren’t even sure the men had survived the cave-in, one of the mine’s owners said Tuesday.

Crews worked through the night in shifts, with teams coming and going along the road leading to the Crandall Canyon mine in a forested canyon.

“The Lord has already decided whether they’re alive or dead,” said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a part owner of the Crandall Canyon mine. “But it’s up to Bob Murray and my management to get access to them as quickly as we can.”

If all goes well, it will still take three days to reach the chamber where the miners are believed to be, he said. Even then, rescuers will have only a 2-inch hole into the chamber through which to communicate with the miners and provide them food or air, he said.

Little was known about the six miners. Only one has been identified, but Mexico’s consul in Salt Lake City, Salvador Jimenez, said three of the men are Mexican citizens.

Jimenez said he did not know any details about the men, including whether they are U.S. residents, their ages or hometowns.

Crews moved only 310 feet closer to the miners in the first 30 hours after the cave-in, Murray said.

Attempts were halted overnight after a “bump” in which coal was dislodged from the mine’s ribs, said Al Davis, an official with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.