1 person dead, 12 rescued in Colo. Elevator failure in a gold mine

Authors: Jesse Bedayn and Matthew Brown
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DENVER – One person died and 12 were rescued after being trapped at the bottom of a former gold mine in Colorado for about six hours after an elevator at a tourist resort malfunctioned, authorities said.

The elevator was descending into the Mollie Kathleen gold mine near the town of Cripple Creek when it developed a mechanical failure about 500 feet below the surface, posing a “serious hazard to participants,” Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said.

The cause of the guest’s death was not immediately announced.

Mikesell said the 12 adults who were trapped about 1,000 feet underground had access to the water and were communicating by radio with authorities, who told them there was a problem with the elevator.

Mikesell said during an overnight briefing that authorities do not yet know what caused the outage and an investigation is ongoing. Engineers made sure the elevator was operating safely again before the stranded guests boarded it again. They were ready to hoist them onto the rope if necessary if they couldn’t fix the elevator.

Mikesell declined to reveal the victim’s identity.

The incident, which was reported to authorities around noon, occurred during the last week of the Mollie Kathleen gold mine season before it closed for the winter, Mikesell said.

Earlier in the afternoon, when 12 people were stuck at the bottom, 11 other people who were riding in the elevator were rescued. Four of them suffered minor injuries, but the sheriff did not provide details on how they were injured.

According to the mine’s website, the elevator ride typically takes about two minutes and moves at a speed of about 152 meters per minute.

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Mikesell said the last time it happened was in the 1980s, when several people were trapped in an elevator. No one died in this incident.

According to the state Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, mines operating as tourist attractions in Colorado must designate a person to conduct daily inspections of the mines and transportation systems. Mikesell said he did not know the date of the last inspection. Records of the inspection were not immediately available online.

Gov. Jared Polis dispatched state resources, including a mine rescue team.

Cripple Creek is a town of approximately 1,100 people located in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Colorado Springs.

The mine opened in the 19th century and closed in 1961, but still offers tours. Its website describes an hour-long tour during which visitors descend from a height of 305 meters. They say they see gold veins in the rock and ride an underground tram.

According to the company’s website, a woman named Mollie Kathleen Gortner discovered the mine site in 1891 when she saw quartz interspersed with gold.