Rock hunting trip ends in 50-year-old’s death at abandoned Alaska gold mine, cops say
Fellow rock hunters tried to save a 50-year-old who had a medical emergency while in an abandoned mine on an island in Alaska, but they were unsuccessful, officials said.
The group attempted CPR on Devin Albert of Washington state after an unspecified medical emergency in the Salt Chuck Mine on Prince of Wales Island on Jan. 2, but their efforts were “to no avail” and Albert died, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said in a Jan. 6 news release.
State troopers responded, but they didn’t try to reach Albert’s body that day because of “weather, darkness and hazardous conditions in the mine,” officials said.
Rescuers finally were able to recover Albert’s body Jan. 5 by using an alternate mine shaft, officials said.
“Weather, and the unstable, steep and partially collapsed mine shafts had hampered the recovery efforts until the alternate route was discovered,” according to officials.
The Salt Chuck Mine operated for about 36 years starting in 1905, according to state records. The former gold, silver, copper and palladium mine is now abandoned.
Prince of Wales Island is in the Alaska Panhandle.
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