COEUR d'ALENE - Management failed to ensure safe procedures were used during shaft maintenance work at Sunshine Mine, leading to the death of miner Nicholas Rounds in June, federal mine safety regulators determined.

"The accident occurred due to management's failure to identify possible hazards and establish safe work procedures associated with performing shaft maintenance work, specifically where miners were to safely tie off their lanyards," according to a report posted Thursday to the website of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

On June 2 at the silver mine, Rounds, who was 36 years old and had 18 years of mining experience, was working in the personnel hoist compartment of the Jewell Shaft.

After loading some material onto a "chippy" work deck, the hoist operator was given the OK to move the hoist toward the surface. Rounds, however, had not disconnected his fall-protection lanyard from a stationary rod attaching him to the shaft wall. When the chippy moved, he was pulled into the space between the chippy work deck and the shaft wall.

"The cause of death was attributed to multiple body fractures and internal injuries," the report said.

The clearance between the work deck and wall timber is 5 inches.

The Sunshine Mine, located between Kellogg and Wallace, currently is being rehabilitated and isn't producing.

Sunshine Silver Mining and Refining Corp., based in Denver, owns and operates the mine.

"Sunshine trained all shaft workers to be properly tied off to the conveyance before a signal to move the conveyance is placed," Donna Vetrano Pryor, an attorney representing Sunshine Silver, wrote to MSHA after reviewing a draft of the report.

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Sunshine also provided proper anchor points on the conveyance and all shaft workers were trained to use those anchor points while the conveyance was moving, Pryor wrote.

Monica Brisnehan, a spokeswoman for Sunshine Silver, said the company strongly disagrees with MSHA's conclusions.

"We are taking this accident very seriously, as we lost a family member that day," Brisnehan said Friday night. "We have taken steps to ensure the safety of all miners."

The mine is estimated to have produced more than 365 million total ounces of silver from 1904 to 2008. Its history dates to 1884.

In 1990, the final year of full-capacity operations, it produced approximately 5.4 million ounces of silver.

In 2012, 12 people were working underground at the mine when a fire was detected. The men evacuated safely.

In 1972, 91 men died in a historic fire.