Rescuers digging by hand trying to reach 11 Honduran miners trapped in small gold mine

A man looks into a gold mine where miners are trapped after a landslide in San Juan Arriba, Choluteca, in southern Honduras, early Thursday, July 3, 2014. The entrance to the artisanal mine has a vertical entrance, is located on a steep slope, and operated by local residents. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio) (The Associated Press)

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Rescue workers gather outside a gold mine where miners are trapped after a landslide in San Juan Arriba, Choluteca in southern Honduras, early Thursday, July 3, 2014. The entrance to the artisanal mine has a vertical entrance, is located on a steep slope, and operated by local residents. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio) (The Associated Press)

People gather outside a gold mine where a landslide trapped miners working inside, in San Juan Arriba, Choluteca in southern Honduras, Thursday, July 3, 2014. The entrance to the artisanal mine has a vertical entrance, is located on a steep slope, and operated by local residents. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio) (The Associated Press)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Rescue workers using picks and shovels are clearing rubble as they try to reach 11 miners trapped since Wednesday inside a wildcat gold mine in southern Honduras.

Fire department spokesman Oscar Triminio said Thursday the men are trapped about 90 yards (80 meters) into the old gold mine in the town of El Corpus.

Triminio says the mine partially collapsed shortly after 22 miners entered to search for gold. He says half of the men got out Wednesday.

National Geological Institute director Agapito Rodriguez says that oxygen inside the mine is scarce and that three miners near the entrance are getting oxygen through an air duct.

He says those three have been able to communicate by shouting to rescue workers.