San Juan de Sabinas, Mexico ? With no hope of finding 65 missing miners alive, a few dozen relatives waited outside a collapsed coal mine in northern Mexico on Sunday, hoping efforts to recover remains of their kin will begin soon.

A gas explosion Feb. 19 raised the temperature inside the Pasta de Conchos mine to 1,110 degrees and released toxic methane and carbon monoxide that gobbled up nearly all of the oxygen.

On Saturday mining company officials acknowledged there was no way the trapped coal miners could have survived, ending a week of anguish for relatives still holding out hope for their rescue from the mine, about 85 miles southwest of the U.S. border at Eagle Pass, Texas.

The scientists and executives from the company that owns the mine, Grupo Mexico SA de CV, say it will be until at least today before it will be safe enough to resume recovery efforts. Mining and government scientists said they didn’t know how long it would take to search all of the mine.

Aranely Saucedo and about 15 other relatives of those buried within the mine vowed to send family members to camp outside its entrance in shifts for weeks. They said they are afraid that if they don’t keep a close watch company officials will simply declare their loved ones lost for good.