A second fatality in six months at the Wolverine Mine has shut down underground operations, says the spokesman for the territorial occupational health and safety branch.

Mark Hill told the Star today all underground work at the mine owned by the Yukon Zinc Corp. has been halted until the four safety inspectors currently on site have completed their investigation and are convinced it is safe to resume operations.

The 25-year-old resident of Kelowna, B.C., who was working as a mechanic for Procon Mining and Tunnelling Ltd., was buried by a cave-in at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, says an RCMP press release issued later that day.

The body of William Fisher was recovered at 3 p.m. Sunday.

"This is a tragic outcome and a very sad day,” Yukon Zinc said in a statement.

"On behalf of our management and staff, we express our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of our deceased colleague.

"Both Yukon Zinc and Procon place great emphasis on mine safety and will continue to promote a culture and mindset of safety first.”

The RCMP release said two others were knocked off their feet by the force of the cave-in but did not suffer serious injury.

Hill said he understands the mishap occurred while the crew was working on a piece of roof bolting equipment deep underground at or near the face of the tunnel.

Details regarding the extent of the cave-in were not available this morning, Hill said.

The Wolverine Mine is scheduled to go into production at the end of June.

Procon was contracted to do the mine development work.

Yukon Zinc vice-president Pamela O'Hara said this morning she believes the section of tunnel where the cave-in occurred had indeed been stabilized with roof bolting.

Roof bolting involves driving long bolts into the tunnel ceiling to provide greater stability.

She understands it was the wall of the tunnel which caved in.

Procon president Ed Yurkowski said Fisher is the son of 54-year-old William Fisher, one of the supervisors at the mine.

Another Procon employee, a 20-year-old man originally from Newfoundland, was killed last October when the piece of underground equipment he'd been driving rolled down an incline and squeezed the man between the equipment and tunnel wall.

In that case, though he remained conscious and was able to walk, and while the injury initially appeared to be non-life-threatening, the man was flown into Whitehorse on a regular crew change flight to be examined. He died at Whitehorse General Hospital four hours after suffering the internal injuries.

Sunday's death comes just days before the April 28 annual day of mourning when workers across Canada take time to remember those killed on the job.

The Wolverine Mine is located 180 kilometres southeast of Ross River, 26 kilometres west of the Robert Campbell Highway.

There are approximately 300 people working at the site, 80 per cent of whom are employees of the various construction companies hired to prepare the mine for production.