Rescuing 12 people from Colorado's old gold mine isolation...One is dead.

An elevator malfunction at a former gold mine in Colorado killed a tourist, and 12 people were once isolated and rescued safely.

They were rescued after being isolated 300 meters underground at the bottom of the gold mine, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said.

Earlier, the local sheriff said an elevator at the Molly Kathleen gold mine near Cripple Creek in central Colorado broke down 150 meters underground.

Eleven of the elevator's passengers were rescued first, four of them with minor injuries.

The Molly Kathleen Gold Mine, which opened in the 1800s, stopped mining in the 1960s, but a tour program allows you to take an elevator down 300 metres underground to observe the veins and experience underground mine trains.