Two Australian miners trapped a kilometre underground for the past 11 days are unlikely to be rescued until tomorrow because the last few inches of an escape tunnel will have to be carefully dug by hand, officials said.
Workers inched closer to two trapped miners today, but the rescue ran into a new delay when a giant drilling machine had to be re-stabilised after drilling a tunnel through about 12.5 metres of solid rock.
The final one to two metres of the rescue tunnel will be dug out by hand by teams of volunteer miners using hand picks and shovels, to ensure vibrations from the digging won't trigger another cave-in.
"Our miners are going to go and get them out, there's no question in my mind now. They're determined to get them out," Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten told reporters.
Rescuers had hoped to drill through 14 metres (49 feet) of rock to reach the two men on Saturday with a one-metre wide hole, big enough for them to crawl through to freedom.
But authorities now say the two men face another night below ground at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine on the southern island of Tasmania. The two miners were trapped in a small wire cage after a cave-in on April 25 when an earthquake sent tonnes of rock crashing down. A third miner was killed.
Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, were found alive last Sunday after being entombed for five days. A huge slab of rock landed on the cage they were working in, protecting them from falling rock.