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Mine owners blamed in deaths of 2 men

Report calls fatalities ‘entirely preventable’
Rick Williams is shown with granddaughter Marley, now 4, near Mancos on New Year’s Day 2012. The Mine Safety and Health Administration has fined former Revenue Mine owners more than $1 million after two miners, including Williams, were killed and 20 others were injured after exposure to carbon monoxide Nov. 17, 2013, in the mine, which is south of Ouray.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration has imposed a fine of more than $1 million on the former owners of a Ouray mine after two men died there last year.

Two miners, Rick Williams, 59, of Durango and Nick Cappano, 34, of Montrose were killed by carbon-monoxide poisoning Nov. 17, 2014, at the Revenue Silver Mine, about 14 miles southwest of Ouray.

“Mr. Cappano’s and Mr. Williams’ deaths were entirely preventable,” said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of the Department of Labor for mining safety and health. “They were the result of mine management’s failure to establish and follow basic safety precautions.”

It’s the second highest fine ever issued to a noncoal mine, officials said.

Star Mine Operations LLC owned the mine at the time of the accident. Star will be responsible for payment of the fine, said Troy Nazarewicz, investor relations manager for Fortune Minerals Limited, which completed its purchase of the Revenue Silver Mine on Oct. 1.

The 59-page report is condemnatory of management’s actions and inaction leading up to the fatal accident. It was attributed primarily to Star Mine’s failure to dispose of deteriorated explosives safely, Amy Louviere, spokeswoman for MSHA, said in a news release.

According to the report, Star Mine Operations held a briefing for workers four days before the deaths about its plans to explode the deteriorated explosives, explaining that proper procedure was to contact the manufacturer for advice and that the explosives should not be detonated in an underground, open-air blast. However, the day before Williams’ and Cappano’s deaths, they did detonate in an underground open-air blast and had not contacted the manufacturer.

Even after two miners left the blast area complaining of nausea and headaches the night of the detonation and another complained of bad air, the report said, managers did not barricade the area or inform the miners who arrived to work in the mine the next day of the problem.

MSHA identified six flagrant violations, which are defined as “a reckless or repeated failure to make reasonable efforts to eliminate a known violation of a mandatory safety and health standard that substantially and proximately caused, or reasonably could have been expected to cause, death or seriously bodily injuries.”

The fine may not be the end of the matter.

“It doesn’t mean the investigation is entirely closed,” Main told The Denver Post. “We’re holding out the possibility that further actions may be taken.”

Fortune Minerals has made substantial safety improvements to the mine since its purchase, Nazarewicz said, including drilling a 1,500-feet-deep ventilation bore from the surface, changing safety leadership and adding people to safety oversight, and working to improve the infrastructure.

abutler@durangoherald.com

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