12 rescued from underground mine in Colorado after fatality during tour

A rescue operation in Colorado on Thursday to bring trapped mining tour visitors out of an underground mine was successful, seven hours after one person died and four others were injured.

Gov. Jared Polis announced that the 12 people who were trapped in the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine for 6 hours have been successfully rescued.

"I am relieved," Polis said in a prepared statement.  

The popular tourist attraction where they used to mine for gold is located in Cripple Creek. Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said in an afternoon news conference that the trolley car that goes down the elevator as part of the tour was 500 feet under the ground when a mechanical issue happened. That led to the injuries and the death. So far it's not clear exactly how the victim died.

Mikesell said the fatal victim and the four people injured were part of a group that was removed from the mine, but another group of 12 people 1,000 feet down wound up being unable to surface due to the safety issue.

After many hours, safety officials were able to get the elevator back in working order and the rescue of the 12 people was complete by 7:45 p.m. They were brought up four at a time, and were given pizza to eat after their ordeal.

"We have people and engineers from the state of Colorado, from our local jurisdictions, mine safety, from our partnering mine right over here, our fire departments," Mikesell said while they were still working on the rescue. "We have the best people in the country that are here working on this issue right now, and my hope is that we can have it resolved tonight."

The identity of the person who was killed has not been released.

"Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the individual lost in this incident," Polis said.

Colorado state Sen. Mark Baisley, a Republican who represents Teller County, called the situation tragic.

"The best outcome right now (is) a lot of families get together to recover from the fatality and to comfort each other," Baisley said. 

Polis directed state resources to assist authorities with the rescue efforts.

About the gold mine tour

The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine is located at 9388 Highway 67 in Cripple Creek, which is about an hour west of Colorado Springs. It advertises itself on its website as the "Only Vertical Shaft Gold Mine Tour." Visitors on the tour descend 1,000 feet underground.

Mikesell said the tourist attraction has operated for more than 50 years.

This season's last tours of the old gold mine were scheduled to be this weekend.