A preliminary report on the fatal accident at PotashCorp Aurora on Wednesday has been filed, providing some details of the incident that resulted in the death of 51-year-old David E. Clark of Chocowinity.

“The victim was attempting to join two ends of 24-inch pipe. An excavator bucket was being used to position the pipe in the saddle of a pipe fuser,” reads the report. “The pipe slipped out of the saddle and struck him.”

The report identifies the pipe fuser as a McElroy A3640101.

Clark, a supervisor with Trader Construction Company of New Bern, had worked for Trader for 24 years, including 20 years at the mine.

The report, prepared by Mike Hancher with the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s southeastern office in Sanford, shows the accident occurred at 4:51 p.m., with the time of death at 5:50 p.m. Billy Ratliff investigated the accident for MSHA. The report was filed Friday.

The accident occurred at PotashCorps’ Lee Creek open-pit mine.

The report indicates an autopsy was performed on Clark’s body.

According to the report, 152 contract employees were working at the mine when the accident occurred, including 79 in the open pit, 20 at the prep plant and 53 working elsewhere.

The reports shows there are a total of 385 employees who work at the mine, with 232 working in the mine, 123 working at the prep plant and 30 working elsewhere.

Information included in the initial report is based on preliminary data only and does not represent final determinations regarding the nature of the incident or conclusions regarding the cause of the accident, reads a disclaimer on the initial report.

Both MSHA and the N.C. Labor Department’s Mine and Quarry Bureau sent investigators to the accident scene Thursday.

If any citations are issued as a result of any investigation, they would be issued by federal authorities, Neal O’Briant, a public information officer with the N.C. Labor Department, said Thursday.

There were 24 fatal mine accidents in 2010, according to MSHA’s website. Last month, a fatal mine accident occurred at CF Industries phosphate mine in Florida.

MSHA has jurisdiction over approximately 2,100 coal mines and 12,500 metal and nonmetal mines nationwide. MSHA’s mission is to protect the safety and health of the nation’s miners under the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, as amended by the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006.