Hecla’s Lucky Friday silver mine ops suspended after fatality

For a quarter of a century, Hecla’s Lucky Friday Mine in northern Idaho had not experienced a fatality. Now two fatalities have occurred in the past seven months.

Miner Brandon Lloyd Gray, an employee of Cementation Inc., which is working on the construction of the #4 Shaft at the Lucky Friday operation, died Saturday of injuries sustained during an accident Thursday at the mine.

Two contractors were involved in the accident during routine activities involving the construction of a 16-foot diameter underground rock bin. Both men were believed to be wearing all required personal protection equipment including fall protection.

“For reasons that are unknown at this time, the two men were drawn into material that was moving underneath them,” Hecla said in a news release. “Both contractors were removed from the area and transported to the hospital.” One unidentified Cementation employee was treated and released from the hospital. However, Gray, 26, succumbed to his injuries early Saturday morning.

Hecla chose to cease mining operations at the Lucky Friday “in order to focus our attention on the emergency response and to provide support to the affected employees and families of both Hecla and Cementation.” The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) subsequently issued a 103(j) Mine Accident and Rescue, Recovery and Preservation of Evidence order.

When it is determined by MSHA that an order is appropriate to preserve evidence, MSHA may issue an order prohibiting activity at the accident site to prevent destruction of evidence, which may assistant in investigating the cause or causes of the accident.

Gray is the second fatality at Lucky Friday this year. On April 15, 2011, 53-year-old Larry Marek was wetting a muck pile in a stope when a fall of back, approximately 90-feet long, struck him, trapping him about a mile underground. Marek’s body was recovered after more than week of round-the-clock efforts to rescue him.

Marek had worked in mining for three decades.

MSHA issued several citations to Hecla in the death of Marek stemming from ground conditions and ground support violations. – Mineweb

Tags: Hecla's Lucky Friday Mine, Silver, silver mining, silver mining companies, silver mining industry

Posted by Silver Guru on Nov 21 2011. Filed under Silver mining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry