Australia ? Rescuers used explosives today to blast the final stretch of an escape tunnel in a desperate effort to free two Australian gold miners trapped underground for 12 days in a small steel cage.

Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, have been entombed a half-mile underground since an earthquake caused a rockfall April 25. Mine manager Matthew Gill said progress was painfully slow and it was unlikely that the pair would be freed today.

“The work is hard going and rescuers are now making slow progress using a low shot blasting technique,” Gill said. “It is not known how much longer this will take.”

Beaconsfield, a town of 1,500, planned a huge party when the men are freed, including ringing a local church bell that has not sounded since the end of World War II. But Gill looked somber at a news conference, no longer laughing and joking with reporters at he has in the past.