A tour guide died at a Colorado gold mine after an elevator suffered a mechanical problem hundreds of feet underground, trapping nearly two dozen others, officials said.
The trip team ended up near the bottom of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek on Thursday, according to officials.
The victim who died Friday was identified as Patrick Weier, 46, one of the mine drivers, Teller Counter Sheriff Jason Mikesell said.
People became trapped in the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Teller County, Colo. on October 10, 2024.
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“This is a county tragedy. This is a Colorado tragedy,” Teller County Commissioner Dan Williams said at a news conference Friday.
Mikesell said he doesn’t know exactly what happened, but believes Weier was “trying to keep everyone safe” during the incident.
“All I know is that he was a good man, and he loved his job,” Mikesell said at a news conference Friday.
Weier is survived by a 7-year-old child, Mikesell said.
The incident happened around noon Thursday about 500 feet underground, trapping nearly two dozen people in the mine shaft, Mikesell said.
Eleven people were initially pulled from the mine, including Weier and two children, authorities said. Twelve others, including another driver, were rescued after being trapped at 1,000 meters for six hours, authorities said.
Mikesell said that the cause of the accident is still under investigation.
“We know that the problem happened 500 meters away. We know that there was an incident with the gates, and at that point, something went wrong,” said Mikesell. “We don’t know what caused that.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Mine Safety will investigate the incident.
The death was related to a mechanical problem, not a health problem, Mikesell said.
Local hospital UCHealth said seven patients have been admitted since the incident, and all have since been treated and released.
One person died in an accident at the Mollie Kathleen gold mine in Teller County, Colo., on October 10, 2024.
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To rescue the 12 people still stuck in the mine shaft, engineers had to fix the stuck elevator at 500 feet, check cables and do a test run sending it up to the 1,000-foot level and back, officials said.
The mine owner walked with inspectors to confirm the elevator could be lowered safely, while the owner’s son operated the elevator system, according to Mikesell.
“Without their help, we might not have been able to get people out of there,” Mikesell said, calling them “heroes.”
After the successful test, they managed to bring in four of the trapped adults at once so the remaining 12 could be rescued, Mikesell said.
Because the people were trapped, there was no concern about running out of oxygen, Mikesell said, as they had water, chairs and blankets and were able to communicate with rescuers.
None of the people stuck at 1,000 feet knew what was going on and “thought it was a simple problem with the elevator,” Mikesell said. Once they were rescued they were told about the deceased, he said.
The mine, which is about 1,000 meters deep, is a popular tourist destination. There hasn’t been an incident like this there since 1986, Mikesell said.
“The owner of this mine and the family that has been behind this mine for many years have done a lot of work to make everything safe,” Mikesell said. “Thousands of people have been thrown into this mine for tours and with very, very low safety. But any time you’re dealing with heavy machinery…in a mine, there could be accidents. And it was a tragic accident.”
Multiple agencies, including search and rescue teams, responded to the incident with heavy equipment.
Mikesell said he has received calls from senators, the governor of Colorado and the White House about the incident.
Amid the rescue effort, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said he was monitoring the situation and sending state resources to help.
“I am relieved that Mollie Kathleen has been safely rescued from the 12 people trapped in the mine,” Polis said Thursday night. “Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the person lost in this incident.”
