One dead, 12 trapped underground at Colorado goldmine

One person was dead and 12 others were trapped 300m underground for hours following an elevator failure at a former Colorado goldmine that is now a tourist attraction, officials said.

Another 11 people were rescued from the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine attraction in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell told reporters.

Emergency responders were attempting to repair the elevator to bring back the 11 tourists and one tour guide who were trapped starting around midday, Mr Mikesell said.

With one tour group below ground, the elevator experienced some type of malfunction with another group aboard while it was halfway down the mine shaft. This resulted in one fatality while four other people suffered minor injuries, Mr Mikesell said without providing details of how the person died.

That group was able to return to the surface on the elevator, which has since been out of commission, the sheriff said.

Responders had radio communication with the people trapped below, and they had water, blankets and chairs to keep them comfortable, Mr Mikesell said.

But they were not told that someone died, only that there was a problem with the elevator, the sheriff said.

In the event the elevator cannot be safely repaired, firefighters were preparing for a rescue operation, but using the elevator would be much safer, Mikesell said.

"If we have to, we can bring people up on those ropes, but it also subjects those first responders now to the threat and endangerment of doing so," Mr Mikesell said. "Sitting in a harness from 1,000 feet down coming up is not easy."

Engineers from the state, mine safety experts and the Colorado Springs Fire Department were on hand.

"My crews are specially trained to respond to incidents like this when called upon," Colorado Springs Fire Chief Randy Royal said in a statement, expressing confidence they could mount a rescue operation if needed.

Colorado Springs is about 72km from Cripple Creek, through mountain roads near the Pikes Peak summit in the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.

A family business has been operating tours at the Mollie Kathleen mine for more than 50 years, with only one previous, unspecified safety incident in 1986, Mr Mikesell said.

The one-hour tours show how gold was mined at the site since it was discovered there in 1891 by a woman named Mollie Kathleen Gortner, according to the tour's website. Temperatures underground are typically around 10C.

Tours date to the early days of the mine but became its main function after mining was discontinued in 1961, the site says. The last tour of the season had been scheduled for Sunday.