TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras –  The government of Honduras says it is suspending the search for eight miners trapped for six days in a collapsed gold mine in the south of the country.

Geologist Anibal Godoy, the head of the search, told reporters Monday that “the chance that the miners are alive is close to nothing.”

Godoy said the search was being suspended in order to not risk any more lives in the hunt for the miners.

Three miners were rescued from the unregulated San Juan Arriba mine, which is located in a mountainous municipality known as El Corpus, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the capital Tegucigalpa.

About 5,000 people work in artisanal mining in the area, many turning to the mines because diseases have devastated the region’s grain and coffee crops.