MULLAN, Idaho--mining company officials brought in a remote-controlled digging machine Sunday to try to reach an employee as a tunnel deep into a Northern Idaho me collapsed is missing.

The special digger before they must be more than a mile beneath the surface, where it will be put back together, according to Hecla Mining Company officials to be disassembled. It was not immediately clear how long that will last.

The roof of a tunnel on the lucky Friday Mine mine collapsed Friday as two brothers worked, trapping one of the men, but the other was able to escape, according to officials and members of the family.

Officials have not had contact with 53-year-old Larry Marek, a 30-year-old veteran, mining since the collapse and his condition was unknown. The brother who escaped, whose name was not immediately available, was not injured.

No one answered the door at the homes of relatives on Sunday, and a person who answered phone on one of the houses declined comment.

The machine will move material more quickly "without all the extra ground support to the security of our rescue teams", the company said in the statement released Sunday morning. "In the meantime, rescue crews continue to secure further and progress concerning the removal of risk materials."
Hecla President Phil Baker said earlier that the remote control "around," similar to a front-end loader, was being flown in from the East Coast.

Marek family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity as per an agreement with the rest of the family, told The Associated Press that two of her brothers were in the mine; a stepped out and the other is not.

She said that most of her family was at the rescue site. She described her family as longtime area miners, but declined to provide more information.

The mine is hidden in the forested mountains of Mullan, a historic mining town of 840 people in the Idaho Panhandle.

Company spokesman Mike Dexter that the two employees had just finished weakening blasted-out rock and ore when the collapse occurred about 75 meters from the end of the 6,150-foot deep tunnel. Getting area was 20 metres wide. Officials say it is unclear if the entire 75-foot section collapsed, or only a portion of it, on the other hand possible leaving the miner trapped.

"We do not know whether the collapse went all the way to the end," said Dexter.

The company said that all mining activity has ceased for the bailout.

The mine employs approximately 275 employees, about 50 of whom underground in different parts of the mine, were when the collapse occurred, said company spokeswoman Melanie Hennessey.

Glen Gotcher, 57, who worked in the mines for 28 years and spent the last seven works in the mill above the ground, said that the community is staying positive as they wait for word on the missing miner.

"This is something people are used to feeling, because when the rock burst occurs, you can feel about town," said Gotcher as he with other miners in the Sneak eshop Bar in the Centre of Mullan collected.

Others were killed in the mine, but not recently, Gotcher said.

Hecla on its website describes itself as the oldest u.s. based precious metals mining company in North America and the largest silver producer in the USA the main office is located in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Hecla currently produces silver from two mines, Greens Creek and Lucky Friday, a mine that has been operational since 1942 and is one of the deepest underground mines of the nation.

The collapse was in an area where my material is watered down and cooled before it is sent to the next stage of processing, Baker said. No reason for the collapse has been identified as
"We are still not focused on the how and why it has occurred," Baker said. "All our efforts are now to rescue miner."

Hecla Mining has expanded her lucky Friday Mine in the silver Valley, spending $ 200 million in recent years to raise silver production by about 60 percent and extending my life outside of 2030.

The company seems to have a good reputation of health and safety at Lucky Friday. There are no victims dating back to 2000, according to a Mine Safety and Health Administration database. The federal regulator for violations of the mine has been cited, but none in the past year specifically tied to the type of accident Friday.

In 2009 the company agreed to pay $ 177,500 in fines for violating federal clean water laws on Lucky Friday. EPA investigators said that the mine exceeded discharge levels for metals such as lead, zinc, cadmium and suspended solids between September 2008 and February 2009. Discharges to streams in the South Fork Coeur d'Alene river above the town of Mullan.

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