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Banned
Rescue workers in Ecuador believe they are closing in on two of the four miners who were trapped underground after a part of a mine collapsed last week, the state news agency reported Tuesday.
Authorities have found two of the four dead. The fate of the others is unknown.
"We're close to the point of contact," Carlos Pareja, Ecuador's minister of nonrenewable resources, told Andes, Ecuador's news agency.
He said the missing men are now believed to be in a tunnel, which is thought to have water and air supplies.
The four men were trapped after a cave in around 3 a.m. Friday in a mine in Portovelo, near Ecuador's southern border with Peru.
The accident happened just days after crews in Chile rescued 33 miners trapped underground for more than two months in a stunning operation that was watched by the world.
Jorge Espinosa, the under-secretary of mining development at Ecuador's Ministry of Nonrenewable Resources, said Friday that the caved-in mine had enough air for the trapped miners to breath for five or six days.
The gold mine is owned by Minesadco.