The agency said managers "showed a disregard for the miners' welfare" and acted with "more than ordinary negligence" before the victim fell through a sinkhole while operating a large loader about 200 feet below the entrance of the mine.

Michael Davis, MSHA's deputy assistant secretary for operations, said several Newmont employees were aware of safety deficiencies at the time but continued to require miners to work and travel in hazardous areas.

Richard Manning, an administrative law judge for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, approved the penalties, Davis said in a statement.

The violations included failure to provide adequate controls to guard against cave-ins and failure to provide adequate barricades and signs to warn miners about the hidden hazards of sinkholes, he said.

In addition, Newmont was cited for impeding MSHA's investigation of the accident by failing to provide maps and other documents, as well as failing to report the entrapment within the required 15 minutes.

The first-line supervisor, two general foremen and the engineer in charge agreed to pay the $60,000 for their roles in the "flagrant ground control violation," the agency said. Their names were not released.

The 30-year-old victim, Thomas Daniel Shaw of Winnemucca, and the loader he was operating fell through the floor of one level of the mine on June 19, 2007.

Rescue crews worked around the clock for 13 days and removed 5,000 tons of debris before his body was recovered July 2 about 30 feet below the site where he had been working. No one else was injured.

Newmont spokeswoman Mary Korpi said the company has implemented a number of safety measures at the mine since the accident, including requirements for operations around sinkholes and additional checks and balances in engineering and design.

"We continue to mourn Dan Shaw's loss and implement the lessons of this tragic accident," Korpi said. "Although we do not agree with all the accusations and findings, we felt it was in everyone's best interest to finalize the agreement and bring closure to this matter."