Accident in Galena Mine injures worker

A Silver Valley miner was injured early Friday morning in a blasting accident at the Galena Mine.

Ken Parker, 23, was peppered with rock chips in the 12:52 a.m. accident. He was taken to Kootenai Medical Center, where he had surgery to have the shards removed. A few splinters that are close to his retina will have to work themselves out on their own, said Parker’s mother-in-law, Leonarda Sabey.

“He’s doing great,” Sabey said. “Mostly, it’s just a miracle that he wasn’t injured seriously.”

Parker, of Osburn, works for Procon, a Vancouver, B.C., firm that is doing contract development work at the Galena Mine. He and a partner were working about 3,000 feet below the surface at the time of the accident.

Sabey and mine officials offered slightly different accounts of the blasting accident.

“One of the rounds didn’t go off when they thought it did,” Sabey said, and Parker was caught by surprise when he reentered his work area and the round detonated.

Mark Hartmann, president of U.S. Silver Corp., which owns the Galena Mine, said the two men were blasting “plug holes” – small holes drilled into the rock and filled with minimal amounts of explosives. The explosives go off in increments. Parker went back into the work area too soon and was hit by flying rock, Hartmann said.

On Friday afternoon, a federal mine inspector was en route to the mine, which is near Silverton, Idaho.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration issued a temporary order closing off the area around the accident site. It’s a standard procedure after an accident, said Amy Louviere, an MSHA spokeswoman.