US Mine Safety and Health Administration spokesman Jesse Lawder told ILN that crews at the mine in Huntington, Emery County, were pillaring in an area when roof rock fell.
The fallen rock was estimated to be 10 feet by 10ft and about 22 inches thick.
A continuous miner operator, identified by Huntington mayor Hilary Gordon to the Associated Press as 28-year-old Elam Jones, was trapped in the incident and died.
Jones was a member of the rescue team that attempted to save six workers trapped underground at the nearby Crandall Canyon operation in 2007.
A second miner, whose name has not yet been released, was taken to Castleview Hospital in nearby Price.
Lawder did not indicate his injuries but confirmed he was in stable condition, while some local media reports on Sunday listed the injured miner as released from Castleview.
Castle Valley No. 4 was under a 103(k) order to suspend operations immediately after the accident.
An ILN request for more information on the mine’s status and more details from mine owner Rhino was not returned by press time.
Federal investigators have opened up a probe into the incident and Lawder confirms MSHA has sent a family liaison to the mine.
According to federal data, Castle Valley produced just under 1 million tons in 2012, with about 146,000 man hours worked. It recorded one non-fatal day lost to injury last year.
The mine is not far from the Crandall Canyon operation where six miners and three rescue workers were killed in a horrific chain of events in August 2007.
A mine explosion left the six workers trapped 1800ft underground and when a rescue team, including Jones, was digging through the debris-filled tunnel in an attempt to reach their trapped colleagues, a wall of coal blew in on them and killed a further three people.
Jones spoke at a vigil after the devastating incidents, saying: “We did everything we possibly could. But the mountain won’t let us do [anything] else.”
Jones’ death marks the eighth coal mine death in the country and the first in Utah for 2013.
The cave-in registered seismic waves of 3.9.
Keep watching ILN for more information on this accident.
