ELKO, NEVADA –
A miner at Jerritt Canyon Gold’s Lee Smith Mine north of Elko has died in a roof collapse at the underground gold operation run by Small Mine Development.
Jason Holman, 42, of Goshen, Utah, was killed Thursday evening, the company confirmed.
“Jason was loading a round and was involved in a fall of ground near the end of his shift,” Small Mine Development’s general manager, Keith Jones, said on Oct. 26.
According to U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration’s spokeswoman Amy Louviere, the miner was “loading blast holes underground when the cemented backfill roof fell, causing fatal injuries. MSHA has inspectors at the mine site and has secured the scene.”
MSHA received a call on Oct. 25 that there had been a ground fall at 5:10 p.m. and one miner was unaccounted for, so SMD mine rescue crews were on the way to the mine, the preliminary report states.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and SMD following this devastating event and tragic loss,” Jerritt Canyon Gold’s president and chief executive officer, Greg Gibson, said on Oct. 26.
“Jerritt Canyon Gold is making every effort to support the family and our employees at this time. We are investigating the incident to better understand what happened. The health and safety of our employees and contractors at our mine remain our top priority,” Gibson said in an email.
Jones said SMD’s “thoughts and prayers are with the family at this difficult time. Small Mine Development lost a valuable employee and our mining family is grieving with the family. We are deeply saddened that this tragic event occurred and will endeavor to determine the cause and work to prevent reoccurrence.”
Jones said in an email that MSHA, the state mine inspector and Elko County Sheriff’s Department are assisting in the investigation, which will “take a period of time to complete.”
Small Mine Development began operating the mine roughly 50 miles north of Elko in 2010 under contract with prior Jerritt Canyon owners and has continued the work under Jerritt Canyon Gold, a private company based in Toronto.
MSHA data shows this is the first mine fatality in Nevada this year. The last mine fatalities in Nevada were those of two men at the Marigold Mine at Valmy on Oct. 31, 2017. Nationwide, Holman’s death is the 14th hardrock-nonmetal mining fatality in 2018.