Saturday, July 29, 2017

Mine worker Gabriel Benitez crushed to death while inside his Ford F550 truck at the ASARCO Mine in Sahuarita when the vehicle he was in was run over by a large dump truck



Gabriel Benitez. (Source: Facebook)
 















Worker dies after being run over by large dump truck at ASARCO Mine in Sahuarita 

Friday, July 28th 2017




TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -

A worker died Thursday night at the ASARCO Mine in Sahuarita when the vehicle he was in was run over by a large dump truck, officials said.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department confirmed Gabriel Benitez, 41, died at the scene.

"It appears Benitez was sitting in his work truck, a Ford F550, when he was ran over by a large mining dump truck that had just finished dropping its load," PCSD spokesman Cody Gress said in a news release."

Gress said there were no signs of impairment from the other driver.

ASARCO issued this statement:


"Work-related injuries are felt deeply in ASARCO’s company and community, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and co-workers.”


The haul trucks carry the ore out of the pit along a haulage road with a slope of no more than about nine percent. They dump the ore into a gyratory crusher which reduces the ore to eight inches or less — about the size of soccer balls.






ASARCO was organized in 1899 as American Smelting And Refining COmpany. Originally a consolidation of a number of lead-silver smelting companies, the Company has evolved over the years into an integrated producer of copper, and other metals.

The Company is a fully integrated miner, smelter and refiner of copper in the United States. ASARCO’s domestic mines annually produce approximately 350 – 400 million pounds of copper. Significant copper mines include the Mission, Silver Bell and the Ray open-pit mines, all three in Arizona.

ASARCO has solvent extraction/electrowinning product at our Ray and Silver Bell mines. ASARCO operates a copper smelter in Hayden, Arizona, which produces almost half a billion pounds of anodes annually. The Company’s Amarillo Copper Refinery in Texas and the SX/EW plants at the Ray and Silver Bell mines produce about 375 million pounds of refined copper per year.