One brother escapes, other trapped in Idaho mine

MULLAN, Idaho — Mining company officials brought in a remote-controlled digging machine Sunday to help try to reach a worker missing since a tunnel collapsed deep inside a northern Idaho silver mine.

The special digger must be disassembled before being taken more than a mile below the surface, where it will be put back together, according to Hecla Mining Company officials. It wasn't immediately clear how long that process will take.

The roof of a tunnel at the Lucky Friday Mine mine collapsed Friday as two brothers were working, trapping one of the men but the other was able to escape, according to officials and family members.

Officials have not had contact with 53-year-old Larry Marek, a 30-year mining veteran, since the collapse and his condition was unknown. The brother who escaped, whose name wasn't immediately available, wasn't injured.

No one answered the door at the homes of family members on Sunday, and a person who answered the phone at one of the homes declined comment.

The machine will move material faster "without needing all the additional ground support to ensure the safety of our rescue teams," the company said in the statement released Sunday morning. "In the meantime, rescue crews continue to safely advance and progress on the removal of material."

Hecla President Phil Baker said earlier that the remote-control "mucker," similar to a front-end loader, was being flown in from the East Coast.

A Marek family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity as per an agreement with the rest of the family, told The Associated Press that most of her family was at the rescue site. She described her family as longtime area miners, but declined to provide any more information.

The mine is tucked into the forested mountains of Mullan, a historic mining town of 840 people in Idaho's Panhandle.

Company spokesman Mike Dexter said the two employees had just finished watering down blasted-out rock and ore when the collapse occurred about 75 feet from the end of the 6,150-foot deep tunnel. The cave-in area was 20 feet wide. Officials say it's unclear if the entire 75-foot section collapsed, or only a portion of it, possibly leaving the miner trapped on the other side.

"We don't know if the collapse went all the way to the end," Dexter said.

The company said all mining activity has been halted for the rescue effort.

The mine employs roughly 275 workers, about 50 of whom were underground in various parts of the mine when the collapse occurred, company spokeswoman Melanie Hennessey said.

On its website, Hecla describes itself as the oldest U.S.-based precious metals mining company in North America and the largest silver producer in the U.S. It is headquartered in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Hecla currently produces silver from two mines, Greens Creek and Lucky Friday, a mine that has been operational since 1942 and is one of the nation's deepest underground mines.

Baker said the collapse was in an area where mine material is watered down and cooled before being shipped to the next phase of processing. No cause for the collapse has been identified

Hecla Mining has been expanding its Lucky Friday Mine in the Silver Valley, spending $200 million in recent years to increase silver production by about 60 percent and extend the mine's life beyond 2030.

The company appears to have a good record of health and safety at Lucky Friday. There have been no fatalities dating back to 2000, according to a Mine Safety and Health Administration database.