Colorado officials ordered the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine to cease and desist operations on Wednesday about a week after a tour guide was killed and 23 people trapped underground when an elevator malfunctioned.
The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety sent a cease and desist letter dated Wednesday to Dennis Lanning, the owner of the tourist destination near Cripple Creek, ordering him to stop all tours and restrict all public access to the mine except to local law enforcement and other government agencies, according to a Thursday news release.
One mine employee, 46-year-old tour guide and Victor resident Patrick Weier, was killed on Oct. 10 when a mine elevator malfunctioned while lowering 11 people down the shaft. The group in the elevator was rescued a short while later, but 12 people already in the mine were trapped 1,000 feet underground for nearly seven hours.
Oct. 10 was one of the mine’s last days of season, according to Teller County officials, and mine owners on Friday announced on the company’s website that the facility would be closed until further notice.
The mine is prohibited from reopening until the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety completes a review of the operation, state officials said in a news release Thursday.
Previous inspection reports for the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine were “satisfactory” before the elevator malfunction, with “no observed violations or hazards,” state officials said. It was last inspected Aug. 29.
State law also requires mine operators to conduct daily safety inspections, and those records are kept by the mine owners, agency officials said.
The Denver Post requested inspection records for the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine from the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety on Thursday, but the agency has not yet released the records.
Agency officials said the delay in releasing the records is because some inspection reports had to be pulled from state archives and scanned to create an electronic version.
In the news release Thursday, state officials noted the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine is the only Colorado tourist mine with an elevator and that the tourist mines have “excellent safety records.”
The incident is also being investigated by the U.S. Occupational and Safety Health Administration and the Teller County Sheriff’s Office.
This is a developing story and may be updated
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