By Joe Rauch
MONTCOAL, West Virginia (Reuters) - Four miners remained missing on Tuesday in a West Virginia coal mine, where an explosion killed at least 25 miners in the deadliest U.S. mining disaster in a quarter century.
Rescue efforts were suspended due to conditions underground at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, owner Massey Energy said in a statement, and would resume as soon as conditions allowed.
The company said 25 miners were dead, two miners were taken to hospitals and four miners were missing after the explosion Monday afternoon at the mine, about 30 miles (48 km) south of the state capital Charleston.
Shares of Massey Energy fell nearly 10 percent on Tuesday in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Rescuers intended to drill a borehole from the surface above the mine to try to reach the missing men, Governor Joe Manchin said. Drilling began but it would be close to Tuesday evening before rescuers reach their target of 1,100 feet (335 metres), he said.
About 50 rescuers were forced to pull back from the search area earlier because methane gas and smoke underground made it too hazardous to continue searching.
The federal government was ready to assist in the rescue operation, President Barack Obama said at a gathering of religious leaders at the White House for a prayer breakfast.
"Pray for the safe return for the missing, the men and women who've put their lives on the line to save them, and the souls of those who've been lost in this tragic accident," the president said.
Eleven of the dead had been identified, the governor said.
"You can imagine the anxiety for the family members," Manchin told the CBS "Early Show" on Tuesday.
Eric Martin, the son of one of the missing miners, told CNN: "It's like I got hit in the gut, right there real hard."
The mine, owned by Massey's Performance Coal subsidiary, has two emergency chambers stocked with food, water and enough air to survive for four days, and rescuers were still hoping the missing miners had made their way there.
"This is still a rescue operation," said Kevin Stricklin of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. "We can't give up hope at all. All we have left is hope."
The high concentration of gases suggests there may have been a second explosion, Stricklin said.
Asked about the fines the company has faced over improper ventilation of methane, Manchin told CBS, "Yeah, I've heard that. And we'll just have to find out. There's no excuse.
The death toll makes it the deadliest U.S. mining disaster since 1984, when 27 miners died in a fire in Utah, according to the United States Mine Rescue Association.
Massey CEO Don Blankenship said the company was "taking every action to locate and rescue those still missing."
SAFETY VIOLATIONS
The Montcoal disaster occurred just as China was celebrating the rescue of more than 100 miners from a flooded coal mine. The miners endured more than a week underground.
Five miners died in the Chinese mine in Xiangning, in the northern province of Shanxi, and 33 were still missing.
Massey, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia, with operations in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.
Massey said on its website that its accident rate fell to an all-time low for the company in 2009. It said its safety record last year was stronger than the industry average for the sixth consecutive year.
But according to federal records, the Upper Big Branch Mine has had three fatalities since 1998 and has a worse than average injury rate over the last 10 years. Two of the miners died in roof collapses in 1998 and 2001, while a third was electrocuted in 2003 when repairing an underground car.
Ellen Smith, the editor of Mine Safety and Health News, said the Upper Big Branch mine had been repeatedly cited for safety violations going back years and continuing this year.
The mine, which employs just over 200 people, uses the "longwall mining" method to tear coal from a lengthy face, leading the ground behind it to collapse. Critics say the method can cause surface subsidence and damage to buildings.
In the worst coal mine disaster in U.S. history, 362 miners died in an explosion in 1906 in West Virginia's Monongah mine.
(Additional reporting by Jon Hurdle and Doina Chiacu; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Mark Egan and Doina Chiacu)
