A worker who was electrocuted at the Stillwater Mine last summer used the wrong switch to try to cut power to a portion of the underground mine because it wasn’t properly labeled, according to a recent government report.
Brian Hanson, 50, died on July 26, 2025, after suffering a 7,600-volt shock while doing maintenance work at the underground palladium mine near Columbus, according to a final fatality report released recently by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which investigates mine accidents.
The MSHA issued three enforcement actions against the mine as a result of the investigation, the report shows. The agency declined to release copies of the documents.
Heather McDowell, vice president of legal and external affairs for the Stillwater Mining Company, did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the report, the mine took several corrective actions after Hanson’s death, including writing new policies for securing equipment during maintenance, updating safety training and developing “an additional practice of labeling power systems to make them easily identified.”
The report states that on the morning of the accident, Hanson and other workers were performing maintenance on a transformer, which transfers power between separate electrical circuits with different voltages. Hanson’s supervisor told him that instead of their usual protocol, they should shut off power to the transformer using a switch that manually interrupts the flow of electricity. But the supervisor “never discussed or clarified which specific switch” was to be used, the report said.
Witnesses working with Hanson that morning told investigators that he said he was going to “lock out.” According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “lockout” is a safety practice in which employees secure a padlock to a piece of equipment after shutting off power to indicate to others that it is de-energized and being worked on.
Hanson’s lock was found on another switch that controlled a different transformer, and not the one Hanson and others were working on, according to the report. The switch was not labeled to show which units it controlled, and “this could not be readily determined by its location,” investigators wrote.
When Hanson returned from installing his lock, he climbed into the transformer to clean it, the report said. An electrical current was still flowing into the transformer, and he received a shock of 7,600 volts. That voltage falls within the range of power lines supplying electricity to residential neighborhoods, according to EcoFlow, an environmentally friendly energy and technology company.
The MSHA report identified three causes of the fatal accident: failing to ensure the power was off during maintenance; failing to label principal power switches to show which units they controlled; and failing to train Hanson and other staff on the new procedure for turning off the power.
According to the report, Hanson worked at the mine for five-and-a-half years and had approximately 23 years of additional experience as an electrician in the oil and gas industry.
Hanson’s death was the fourth in five years at the Stillwater Mine, according to MSHA data. In 2021, two supervisors driving a utility vehicle died when an underground train ran into them. And in 2023, another miner died when he became entangled in a rotating drill steel while changing the steel.
The Stillwater Mine is owned by Sibanye-Stillwater, with headquarters in South Africa.
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
