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A Sandy mining company received two citations from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in the agency's investigation of a January accident that claimed the life of a company employee at a Nevada gold mine.
Newmont USA, which owns the underground Leeville gold mine near Carlin, Nev., also received a citation for its role in the Jan. 11, 2015, death of Brian Lee Holmes, 53. Mining records do not show where he lived, but Holmes was a miner with Cementation USA, Inc., a contract-mining company that provides underground-mine development and production services to mining operations throughout the United States.
A 35-year veteran miner, Holmes was one of 15 Cementation employees rehabilitating a mine shaft when the accident occurred. After a routine morning of work, the MSHA investigation said, Holmes and two colleagues were riding an elevator-style "skip" to the surface to eat lunch when he sneezed. His head moved forward as the skip moved upward at a speed of 200 feet per minute, causing Holmes's head to hit a steel cross beam on the skip's exterior structure.
Although the co-workers immediately called for medical assistance and CPR was administered at the surface by company's emergency medical technicians, paramedics with a helicopter flight crew declared him dead at the scene of multiple blunt force injuries, MSHA said.
Both Newmont and Cementation were cited for operating the hoist too fast for existing conditions in the shaft. Although Holmes was wearing a safety lanyard while riding the hoist, it was not short enough to keep him within the perimeter of the machine, accounting for the second citation given to Cementation.
MSHA noted that, since the accident, Newmont USA installed enclosed cages on top of the skips.
A Cementation official did not respond to a request for comment.