Multinational coal giant Drummond Co has shut down the El Descanso mine after an accident in which an employee was fatally electrocuted, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Electrician Wiston Alberto Romero Celedon, aged 38, was killed Sunday afternoon at the El Descanso mine, which has since been temporarily closed, along with the Pribbenow mine, according to the president of Sintramienegetica trade union, Raul Sosa.
Romero Celedon died after receiveing 7,200 volts as he carried out maintenance work on a bulldozer on November 6, Colombian newspaper El Heraldo reported Monday.
“It seems that one of the cables of the bulldozer brushed against a piece of iron, forming an invisible electrical arch which reached Winston and killed him,” said Estivenson Avila, a representative of the same trade union.
Drummond Co, which produces one third of Colombia’s coal, is currently facing two lawsuits in the United States for the deaths of three trade unionists and 18 small-scale farmers.