A body found Saturday in the Apex Mine about 5 miles northwest of Fairplay is under investigation by the Park County Coroner’s Office, Sheriff’s Department and the Mine Safety Hazard Administration.
The name and gender of the deceased was not released Sunday, nor was any other information related to the fatality.
“Recovery crews are working their way into the area today,” Park County Coroner David E Kintz Jr. said in a statement.
In that e-mail, Kintz identified the mine as the Ajax Mine, which is well-known gold mine in neighboring Teller County.
The Apex Mine, located at 11,975 feet, has yielded gold and silver, according to the Colorado Geological Survey.
Kintz said in his email he was paged about “an individual deceased in a mine” at about 10:45 p.m. Saturday.
The Fairplay Flume newspaper talked to Kintz by cell phone Sunday as the coroner hiked to the high-altitude mine site in “treacherous country.”
He told the Flume the body is that of a Park County man who was mining in the shaft and was discovered Saturday by his brother, who had gone looking for the miner after he had not been heard from in a week.
Kintz said in his email Sunday afternoon that more information would be released once the body was recovered and the scene investigated.
